Tales from Edo
by vannahfanfics
Summary: A collection of oneshots from the fandom Gintama. DISCLAIMER: I do not own the characters presented within these stories. Those rights belong exclusively to Hideaki Sorachi. My requests are currently: CLOSED
1. Foreword

Hello everyone! Welcome to my oneshot collection for Gintama, _Tales from Edo! _It includes a variety of stories, from passionate romances to tales of friendship, and I hope everyone enjoys reading them as much as I enjoy writing them. If you have migrated here from _Cuddle Corner, _thank you for sticking with me; if you are new, welcome and enjoy what I have here! In either case, happy reading!

I do take prompts/pairing and story requests (in fact, I love them, so please feel free to request!). However, there are a couple of guidelines to keep in mind:

If a prompt is submitted, I **do not** guarantee that I will agree to write it. If I feel uncomfortable at the prompt or otherwise feel like I do not possess enough information to adequately complete the prompt, it is my right to politely refuse to take the prompt. If the prompt is from a series that I have not read/seen, it is likely that I will place the prompt on hold until I have done so. If the prompt is from an anime filler arc, I may refuse or require a short explanation of the filler arc to provide me with enough detail to complete the prompt. Please respect my choice as an author to refuse prompts. Please do not comment with ship hate. I do not tolerate ship discrimination here (within reason, citing the rules below); it is a sure-fire way to earn yourself a block. I am a multi-shipper and don't care about petty ship wars, so it's really quite rude to come on here bleating that I am "delusional" for writing non-canon ships for fun. _Don't do it._ I write your ship too, I promise. Let others enjoy their ships. Most of the stories I write are male/female, mostly because this is what I am comfortable writing. However, if you wish to suggest a female/female or male/male prompt, please feel free to do so. I don't discriminate against such pairings and will most likely write them if requested, it is just unlikely that I will do so spontaneously. Again, please respect my decision as the author to refuse to write a pairing if I cannot draw appropriate inspiration. Finally, this is _not _a place for smut. I respect people who read and/or write it, but I am not one of those people, so please do not request anything that is NSFW. Incest and pedophilia are also prohibited. Other than NSFW, there are two other things to keep I mind. _I do not romanticize cheating_. So if I feel your request involves something of this nature, I will politely refuse. I have been hassled about this before, so please don't press me on it. Secondly, _I am sensitive about large age gaps between characters_. These will be taken on a case-by-case basis and depends on the age of the characters as well as their relationship. I am particularly iffy concerning student-teacher relationships, and those will most likely be refused. Of course, everyone is entitled to their preferences and I will never harass you or judge you if you request something of this nature. All I ask is that if I refuse, you take is gracefully, and don't get upset if I happen to write another pairing with an age gap because the circumstances are most likely radically different. I promise you that I have my reasons.

My requests are currently: **CLOSED**


	2. Index

**Chapter 1:** Moonlight Sonata _(Gintoki/Tae)_

**Chapter 2:** Sparks Flew _(Gintoki/Kyuubei)_

**Chapter 3:** Ghosts_ (Gintoki & Katsura)_

**Chapter 4:** Snapshot_ (Gintoki/Tae)_

**Chapter 5:** Purgatory_ (Hijikata & Takasugi)_

**Chapter 6:** Hope_ (Nobume & Shouyo)_

**Chapter 7:** The Purest Form of Love_ (Gintoki/Tae)_

**Chapter 8:** Snowed In_ (Hijikata/Tae)_


	3. Moonlight Sonata

Category: Romantic Fluff

Characters: Gintoki Sakata, Tae Shimura

Requested By: Anonymous User

"Bye, everyone! I'll see you tomorrow night!" Tae called cheerfully over her shoulder as she walked out of the doors of the cabaret club. There was a chorus of polite farewells from her coworkers, as well as quite a few lamented wails from her drunken customers, as her sweet smile disappeared with the swing of the door. As soon as she stepped outside, however, Tae had half a mind to jump right back into the building, as a chilly wind swept across the dirt street to leap through the folds of her kimono and nip at her vulnerable skin with far too much glee. She lingered in the entryway for a few minutes, as its wooden bearings provided at least marginal protection from the biting cold, as she pondered what to do. The walk home was appreciable and she had no care to fall ill on account of simple pride and forgetting to check the weather forecast for the night, but she also had no desire to linger in the cabaret club for the wee hours of the night until the sun came up to bless the world with its warming ways, either.

"Oh, dear… What a mess I've gotten myself into," she tutted aloud as she pouted and tapped her index finger against her cheek. It was a pity that her gorilla-like stalker was seemingly absent today, as he would have undoubtedly noticed her plight and would be bundling her up in a coat by now. Stalkerish and annoying as he was, she did acknowledge that he cared for her and at least tried to, in his brutish, stupid way, look out for her… _If he wasn't a blatant stalker, I might even appreciate it! _She thought with a dour look. Just thinking of his ridiculous antics soured her mood a little. "Well, there's nothing for it. It'll only get colder," she decided finally and pushed away from the post she had been leaning on to begin shuffling down the street towards her home. She kept her arms tucked to her midriff and her steps quick and light to avoid chilling her extremities too much, but it honestly didn't help; after only a few yards or so she was shuddering and rubbing the pale, goosepimply skin of her arms in feeble attempts to reclaim the minimal warmth she had possessed a few moments before. She tossed a longing glance over her shoulder at the cabaret club. _I could always nick a coat from one of those drunkards… _She fancied it but would never follow through. She had no desire to be fired over stealing from a customer.

"What the hell are you doing out this time of night in just a kimono?"

While such gruff, aggressive speech would normally frighten a young lady alone in the dark of night, Tae thankfully knew the silver-haired man such rudeness belonged to. She pursed her lips as she turned back around to see Gintoki Sakata standing in the middle of the street, hands tucked into the pockets of his overcoat and that same bored look in his eyes that he always wore. _Even this dense man had the sense to bring a jacket tonight, _she thought with a small sigh. It's not like it was surprising, since Gintoki watched the weather religiously due to his worship of Ketsuno Ana, but one would think that a samurai would bravely proclaim "I'm a man! I'm immune to the cold!" Yet here he was, bundled up like it was below freezing. _With this wind, it probably is, _Tae grimaced as she rubbed her arms again. She could swear that the tips of her fingers were going numb.

"I'm going home from work. I forgot to bring a jacket today," she answered simply. Standing around conversing with him was only leaving her subject to freezing there on the spot, so she decided to resume walking, because at least the activity would get her blood flowing and stave off some of the icy chill… theoretically, but it didn't seem to help much. She only made it a few feet, to right where Gintoki was idling there just watching her with that same blank, disinterested stare, before she had to stop in her tracks again to let out a very loud, not-very-ladylike sneeze. Whining miserably, rubbing her nose, and lamenting the cold she was most definitely going to be bedridden with tomorrow, she cursed her own carelessness.

"It's unlike you to look so in distress," Gin chided at her, and she didn't even have to look at him; she could _hear_ the smirk on his face. Her head snapped up to deliver some stunning retort, but it died in her throat as soon as she saw what he was doing. There was a quick, shrill whine from the zipper of his jacket as he casually pulled it down, followed by rustling fabric as he shouldered out of the overcoat. Tae's eyes widened as he thrusted it out to her with one hand (and picked his nose with the other, the gross bastard, ruining what could be a perfectly romantic moment in the only way that Gintoki could). "Here. Take it. I'll never hear the end of it from Shinpachi if I let his sister freeze to death and not offer her my jacket." He said so, but from the way his eyes were trailed off somewhere over her shoulder rather than directly on her implied that perhaps even his seemingly callous heart was a little moved from seeing Tae in such obvious duress. A faint haze of pink bloomed on her cheeks as she reached out to gently take the offered coat, and she almost sighed in overwhelming relief from the sheer amount of heat that bloomed just on her hands.

"Thank you." One wouldn't think putting on a jacket had any _erotic _implications, but Tae literally had to suppress a very small, light moan as she slipped her arms into the large sleeves of Gintoki's coat. His lingering body heat radiated into her every cell and made it feel like she was ice melting into deliciously warm water. It was slightly too big for her, requiring that she shake the ends of the sleeves slightly to allow her hands to poke through so that she could zip the jacket back up, and she did, right to the tip of her chin to trap as much of that heat in the fibers of the coat as possible. Gintoki, poor vagabond that he was, somehow had acquired a luxurious coat lined with furls of cotton on the inside, and very soon Tae had forgotten what the cold even felt light. Her smile was radiant as she once again expressed her gratitude to him, "Really! I feel much better now."

"Yeah, yeah." Tae knew for sure that he must have been freezing, but Gintoki had not a shiver about him as he ran his hand through his moonlight silver hair. Had he glanced at her even once this entire exchange? He was still gazing off lazily into the wild midnight blue of the starry night sky above them. Gintoki was a serious person and not shy in the slightest, so this behavior was definitely interesting. Tae blinked and leaned forward slightly to peer up into his face, and she was damned if there wasn't the faintest dust of a rosy blush gracing his cheeks. _He really does care, doesn't he? _"What the hell you starin' at?" he snapped at her. He may have intended to place some bite behind those words, but it almost came out fearful; by the way his face continued to redden, he caught the weakness in his voice and was not too pleased about it. She giggled lightly and flashed him another small smile.

"Care to walk a lady home? In exchange for letting me borrow the coat, I'll make you a snack when we get there."

"Tae, I will die before eating any of your cooking." She stuck out her bottom lip at the terse reply, but, there was no denying she was a terrible cook. Still, there were things that even she couldn't mess up.

"How about some hot tea, then, with lots of sugar?"

"Now you're talkin'," he grinned, and for the first time, his dark irises flickered to meet hers with an excited glitter. There were few things more powerful than Gintoki Sakata's sweet tooth. Placing his hands behind his head, he whirled on his heel to fall in step with her as she continued her trek through the streets to her distant abode. For a long time, the only sound was the alternating scrapes of their sandals in the cool sand of the unpaved streets; Gintoki once more had his eyes trained on the heavens as if he were involved in rather deep discussion with the moon and stars, which was apparently more riveting than a conversation with the woman right next to him; Tae didn't mind, exactly. Truthfully, she wasn't sure what they would even talk about. She snuck a sordid glance at him out of the corners of her eyes, and with the silence, she could honestly appreciate the magic that the pale glow of the heavens was working on the otherwise undesirable samurai. Gintoki really didn't have a bad face at all, and the white light accentuated that, defining his sharp jawline even further such that it mirrored the slicing edge of a katana. Its glow seemed to deposit the stars themselves in his dark eyes, glittering faintly only to Tae's eyes. Then of course, his white hair absorbed it like a sponge soaked up water, making the fine threads glow with an almost ephemeral quality that left Tae with the overwhelming urge to run her fingers through it, because it looked like supple threads of silk. She was considering this as his gaze once more flickered to hers, and she went red, because there was no arguing that she had been staring at him. "What?"

"I was just thinking that you'd be a pretty handsome guy if you weren't the way you were." His face immediately screwed up into a very unflattering grimace at her shameless, brutal honesty.

"Damn, Tae, just go and insult my entire being, why don't you…" he grumbled under his breath and looked away in either embarrassment or annoyance. His arms dropped to his sides to slip one of his hands into the folds of his clothes, while the other fell against the end of his wooden sword, probably the result of muscle memory. From Tae's vantage point, it almost looked as if his face did not know what expression to form. His reaction had been altogether peculiar too, because if anyone else had been with them, he would've whipped around and sure given her a verbal lashing. _Is he acting differently because we're alone? _She wondered, and she wasn't quite sure what she would make of that if it were true. Tae respected Gintoki a lot, despite his overall nature; he clearly loved Shinpachi a lot and he was an honorable man when it came down to the wire. Now that she considered that they were indeed walking side-by-side, under the moonlight, and she was wearing his coat and was going to prepare tea for him, there sure were a lot of implications. Tae found herself looking down at her feet as her face grew warm. _It must be the cold muddling my head, _she reasoned and slapped at her cheeks. Tae couldn't possibly have a crush on such an uncultured sleaze like Gintoki Sakata! The brusque strike against her soft flesh left them stinging and faintly red. "Is your face cold now or something?"

"Wh-what? Um, it was a little, but I just warmed it up a little!" she laughed nervously at his weary sigh. Suddenly she was the one who was nervous and couldn't look at _him_. She focused on their surroundings, finding with relief that they were in her neighborhood; sure enough, when she glanced up, she could see her house. Eager to save herself from the awkwardness of the conversation, she scampered quickly over to ascend her steps and unlock the door, with a slightly frowning Gintoki ambling on behind her. "So, about that tea-" she started as she whirled around, her slightly hitched breathing producing a puff of fog before her mouth.

"It's not that big of a deal. It's late; I can really just take my jacket and head home," Gintoki shrugged as he rubbed at the back of his neck. His expression had gone all stiff and complicated again, and Tae suddenly found herself terrified that she had annoyed him some way and disappointed that he didn't in fact want to stay for tea. She wasn't going to pester him, though, because she was actually kind of appalled she was disappointed; why on Earth would she want to be alone with Gintoki, and even worse, excited at the prospect. Mind whirling from all the very confusing emotions coming on her at once, she began removing the jacket as she hopped back down the steps. She was just wriggling her arms out of the sleeves at the halfway point when she very ungracefully fumbled over her own feet and tumbled into the open air. She let out a surprised yelp, hands grasping at the empty air in an instinctual attempt to find a hold, while the soles of her sandals slid uselessly across the wood of the steps. "Whoa!" Gintoki cried and surged forward.

"Oh!" Tae cried as she landed against him. His arms wrapped around her in a tight embrace, and she was very aware of the shape and form of every muscle of his she was in contact with at the moment. Her face was buried right in the middle of his pectorals (which were actually softer than one would think) and just beneath the intense blazing heat grazing her cheeks she could feel the intense pounding of Gintoki's heart. "I'm sorry!" she cried as she looked up at him; whatever she was going to sputter out next abruptly fizzled out on her tongue, because his face was a mere inch or so from her own. His mouth was similarly hanging open, in the process of asking her if she was all right, but what came out was more of a choked croak. His pupils met hers for only the briefest of moments before once again sliding to the corners of his eyes. "Why won't you look at me, Gin?" Her voice was a mere breath, light in sound but heavy with desire and want. _Maybe it's a small crush, _quipped a little meek voice in the back of her mind. Her gaze flickered down to his mouth as she saw the corner of it twitch.

"Because I keep thinking you would be a pretty cute girl if I hadn't seen you pound grown men into dust," came the eventual reply laced with snark and a fair hint of hesitation. Tae's eyes flickered back upwards to find that he finally _was_ looking at her… and the _way_ he was looking at her made every hair on her body stand at attention as an electric shiver pulsed across her nerves. Tae couldn't even bring herself to be angry at the insult borne in his words because the connotation behind them, and that smoldering fire in his dark eyes, had dominated her mind. Tae's mind was jelly but at least her body knew how to proceed; hands curling into the fabric of his clothes, her back arched slightly as she pressed against him, inhaling deeply with each square inch of skin that met his. The tip of his index finger ghosted across her cheek in the slightest of touches, but Tae could feel the nerves singing even long after he had pulled his hand away to bury it into her tresses of hair, tousling it out of the simple up-do with ease as it settled against the back of her head. After all that time short-circuiting in her mouth, her tongue finally managed to work so she could say something.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay for tea?"

"_Fuck_ yes," Gintoki growled in response, and no sooner did that rumbling reply send another wave of intense electricity over Tae did he jump forward to claim her lips in a feverish, passionate kiss. Tae's hands flew to his shoulders to brace herself against him as his broad body pushed against hers to make her back arch slightly to compensate for her head craning back; one of them soon began to migrate, sliding over his shoulder up his neck to bury her fingers into his luscious messy tufts of moonlight-white hair. Her eyes drifted closed of their own accord, and as blackness overtook her vision it seemed like every other sense of hers went on high-alert; the sweetness of his lips was almost intoxicating, and sparks were jumping over her body with every igniting touch between them. Tae was barely able to stand under the assault of feeling, but when Gintoki pressed the kiss deeper, running his tongue over her bottom lip to silently plead entry, whatever starch keeping her knees steady melted away. As she complied, parting her lips so his tongue could slither forward and eagerly entangle with her own, she slumped completely against him. He wound his arm around her waist to hold her up as every swirl of their tongues weakened Tae further. Warm waves of pulsating energy hummed in every one of Tae's cells in tune with the singing of her frantic heart, pounding in a rising crescendo. Just as she was becoming deafened by the symphony of the moment, Gintoki pulled back, and suddenly the music fell into a deep but comfortable silence. Exhaling shakily, Tae's eyes fluttered open and she found that Gintoki could look nowhere but at her all of a sudden. He chuckled as this fact brought a faint blush to her already flushed cheeks. "What? Now you _don't_ want me to look at you?"

"I didn't say that!" she huffed at him while puffing out her cheeks. He laughed under his breath again as he pulled her against his chest, pressing his cheek against the side of her head while he played with the ends of her hair absentmindedly. _It may be more than a small crush, _she thought in faint amusement as she closed her eyes and just enjoyed the feeling of him holding her. _Shinpachi sure won't be happy about this… _

One thing was for sure- Tae was the furthest thing from cold.


	4. Sparks Flew

Category: Mild Romantic Fluff

Characters: Gintoki Sakata, Kyuubei Yagyuu

Requested By: Anonymous User

Kyuubei's eyes were narrowed as she regarded herself firmly in the reflection of the mirror. She curled her hands tightly into fists while sharply inhaling through her nose, closing her one good eye as she gathered all her willpower into her soul; upon her deep exhale, her eye snapped open and she boldly announced to her intense reflection: "All right! Today is the day! There is no more putting it off!" Pursed lips and cheeks reddened from the fervor of her pledge were belied by a tremble in her dark brown eye. After a few seconds of holding the staring contest with herself, Kyuubei let out a long, wheedling whine and let her shoulders sag. She had been boldly proclaiming this notion for a week now, but so far it had not come to fruition. She was the successor to the Yagyuu household and a strong, independent warrior! She should be able to do it, no sweat! It was such a little thing, after all… Such a _little_ thing…

Admitting to Gintoki that she had a massive crush on him, that is, which was _not_ a little thing at all. Kyuubei hadn't thought that admitting romantic attraction would be such a huge ordeal; after all, she had told Tae pretty plainly that she was in love with her, but Kyuubei had come to realize that the two situations were drastically different. She had been in love with the idea of Tae and not really Tae herself, and had just been confusing their deep bond of friendship with romantic love. With Gintoki, she was experiencing all these… strange sensations and reactions; her heart would pound in her chest like a drum and her skin would flush hot and her mind would dissolve to the consistency of pudding, which all resulted in her becoming a blushing, stammering mess. Thankfully, thus far, the white-haired samurai had just been writing off her odd behavior as lingering effects of her upbringing and shyness around men. Kyuubei had attempted to do so, as well, but it had become painfully apparent to her that no one affected her the way he did. As she wallowed in her failure, she curled her hand against her heart, which was fluttering just at the image of him in her mind. It had been some time since the decisive battle for the world they knew and things had gotten back to truly normal… Yet, although there were no pressing disastrous impending dooms clouding over them, Kyuubei still could not bring herself to admit it to him. Kyuubei was well-acquainted with the bitter taste of fear, and its acidic bite had been poisoning her tongue with rising relish for the last week.

Kyuubei was very afraid. She wasn't afraid of being out-right rejected; she knew that people had their preferences and Gintoki was a flighty man who wasn't the type to settle into a relationship. No, Kyuubei's fears were rooted much deeper than that… She was afraid that he would reject her simply because she was who she was, stuck between identities and neither man nor woman. A sickened feeling began to crawl into her belly; she always psyched herself out this way. _Gintoki wouldn't want someone like me, would he? I'm not beautiful or sweet or charming like Tae… What would I have to offer him romantically? I'm still struggling to even know what romance means, _she thought miserably. Bitter tears stung at her eye as she stared at that reflection of a creature caught in limbo. Kyuubei had considered embracing feminity in its fullest simply to appeal to Gintoki, but somehow, that left an even more bitter taste in her mouth than the described scenario. She exhaled deeply, calming herself down. _No… If he is to love me, then I want him to love __**me**__, not some cheap imitation I try to present to win his favor. _A small smile curled at the corners of her lips, but it was mostly forced. Kyuubei doubted that this day would end any differently than all the others.

She thought that, but immediately began to question that when she walked out of her household to see Tae walking through the gates to the compound.

"Kyuu-chan!" A smile immediately lit up the brunette's face as she trotted over to the swordswoman. Tae's enthusiasm was always infectious, so Kyuubei could not help the appearance of a tiny smile on her own lips as well. Tae had apparently come to the compound in quite a hurry, as her face was flushed with a pink hue and shone with a thin veil of sweat, and she had to lean over slightly with her hand pressed against her chest while she fought for breath. "I'm glad I caught you before you left!" she puffed while continuing to smile up at her.

Kyuubei blinked in confusion as she watched the girl return to equilibrium. Tae didn't seem particularly alarmed, so there was no reason to assume some kind of trouble had befallen her, but then Kyuubei couldn't riddle out what had brought her to the Yagyuu household in such a hurry. She patiently waited for Tae to suck in a deep breath and straighten back up, seemingly ready to explain herself. "There's going to be a fireworks festival tonight to celebrate the new year!" _Ah, so that's what this is about. _The new year was in a few days, and considering it was the weekend, it made sense for a city-wide event to be held on a date that most of the townspeople could attend. "Everyone else is going! Please come with us, Kyuu-chan!"

Kyuubei's cheeks instantaneously glowed a shade of apple-red. _Everyone else_ most certainly included Gintoki, and Kyuubei was both exhilarated and mortified of that prospect; she was painfully reminded of her pledge to admit her feelings to the man in the mirror not ten minutes before. She swallowed down the nauseous sensation that was rising in her throat and turned away, eyes closed as she wrestled with herself. _With such a romantic atmosphere as a fireworks festival, surely there is no better time-! _She thought as she clenched her fists as if to physically force her nerves to steel. Kyuubei had been absorbed in romantic research as of late, which pretty much consisted of watching romantic dramas and reading shojo manga, and of the many things she had learned, one had been that fireworks displays were inherently romantic. To refuse this opportunity would be downright cowardly.

"Of course, Tae-chan," she responded finally, turning back to her with the perfectly crafted unperturbed smile on her face. "I would be happy to attend." On the inside, she was coiled up like a rattlesnake and quivering. No sooner than the words had left her mouth had the overwhelming desire to rescind them bubbled up inside her. However, she could not bring herself to do so, as Tae was so overjoyed that the beam she gave Kyuubei had a glow that rivaled the intense burning sun. Kyuubei gasped as Tae grabbed her by the wrist to haul her out of the Yagyuu compound. "I- What-?"

"We're going shopping for yukatas, silly! Summer festivals aren't complete without yukatas. We'll find you a super-cute one, Kyuu-chan!" Kyuubei swallowed as the blushed blossomed across her cheeks once more. Tae knew about her crush, and Kyuubei knew her well; no doubt, she was hatching a scheme in her cunning mind to doll her up and present her like a freshly-wrapped present to Gintoki in the hopes that sparks flew. Tae-chan's innocent, child-like smile morphed to a mischievous grin for the briefest of seconds, confirming Kyuubei's suspicion. _There's no way out of it now, _she resolved herself with a small sigh and allowed the woman to continue to tote her along. Once Tae had something in her mind, not even the forces of Hell itself could claw it out.

The yukata shop was fairly busy, packed to the brim with excited young girls, many of whom were eager to look dashing for their male suitors that evening. As the conversation around her buzzed with such topics of young love and winning favor, Kyuubei could feel her heart begin to pound anxiously in her chest. _Even if I am wearing such a thing, will Gintoki even notice? _Part of what she liked about him was his unabashed, aloof, almost bored personality and outlook on life, but a deep part of her very much desired his compliments. Kyuubei was no fool; she was not strikingly beautiful like Tae and the other women surrounding her. A great many of them ceased talking as they passed, and the whispers of whether or not she was a man or woman were not unheard to Kyuubei's ears. It wasn't that part that Kyuubei minded, as she had no care for such trivialities; she was afraid, however, that because of that, Gintoki didn't look at her as a potentially attractive creature at all- and that saddened her considerably. "Tae-chan… Are you sure this is a good idea?" she murmured as Tae came to rest to begin perusing the pre-made yukatas neatly arranged on a viewing table. Holding up one of pink fabric that would look stunning on her (but not Kyuubei, probably), she looked at her inquisitively.

"Aw, Kyuu-chan, are you worried about Gin-san?" As if the blush wasn't telling enough, Kyuubei looked shyly to her feet. There was no point in lying, so she affirmed her suspicions with a weak nod. "Don't worry! You get too much in your head, Kyuu-chan," she chortled while knocking on Kyuubei's forehead like a door. "Just be yourself." Kyuubei's rubbed the red mark that had appeared on her forehead as Tae returned to picking through the yukata's. To be herself was pretty cliché advice indeed, but it made sense to Kyuubei; really, she wanted Gintoki to like her for herself. _Perhaps I have been thinking too much about how confessing my feelings is to happen… I suppose if I be myself, then the opportunity will present itself? _She deduced with a small frown. It was worth a shot and was likely to be better than her attempts thus far, and really, she was running out of options. Her mental dilemma embroiled her for enough time for Tae to make a decision, and soon she was spirited away to the dressing rooms.

As she once again marveled herself in the mirror, Kyuubei was a little unsure; not that she doubted Tae's fashion intelligence, but she would have thought that Tae would try to accentuate her girliness. The yukata was of a deep blue fabric that accentuated the midnight tones of her hair, and patterned with frothing waves at the hems the crested around her midriff to roll around the backside, and finally completed with a black sash. It was a rather androgynous design, and Kyuubei found herself curious as to Tae's thinking. She slid open the sliding door to allow her friend to critique, and Tae began clapping and jumping lightly up and down. "Ah, just as I thought! It looks marvelous on you, Kyuu-chan!" Tae herself was indeed wearing the pink one she had spied earlier, which hugged her figure nicely and was embroidered with various flower patterns of many colors with a white sash.

"Why did you pick this one for me, Tae-chan?"

"Because it looked like you!" she responded simply before tutting at her to take it off so they could pay. The answer was far less than illuminating but Kyuubei knew better than to question her friend's judgement, so she just did as bid.

* * *

"Ah! There they are! Hello, everyone!" Tae called merrily from their perch on the riverbank as Gintoki, Shinpachi, and Kagura approached from behind them. As it turned out, the Yorozuya had rented booth space for an arm-wrestling contest with Kagura (which, of course, no one could beat and thus they probably made scores of money from burly men whose egos refused to allow them to lose to tiny Kagura), so Tae and Kyuubei had spent most of the time enjoying the festival as a twosome operating under the premise that the other three would join them for the main event, the fireworks. Kagura was gleefully devouring some cotton candy, likely bought with her winnings, while Gintoki looked like he was close to reaching nirvana as he leafed through the wad of cash he was holding. He was the direct manifestation of a greedy miser in that moment but yet Kyuubei still felt the blush rising to her face as she spied on him, and she shyly cast her gaze to her lap as they came to plop on the grass beside them. It was worse when Gintoki sat down right beside her, making her squirm slightly in discomfort.

She had decided to tell him tonight, but how could she with all these people around? Soon the fireworks would begin, and there would be no way for him to hear her profession of affections. Her hands worriedly kneaded at the fabric of her yukata like a fat house cat in its owner's lap. _Just be myself, _she reminded herself before looking at Gintoki with shining pink cheeks.

"S-so your carnival game was a success?" she stammered.

"Hell yeah it was!" he snickered as he waved the stack of money about triumphantly. "This oughta get the old hag off my back for a few months, and I'll have plenty left over for _Jump_ and pachinko." His grinning mouth shone as brilliantly as the white moon hanging above their heads, and Kyuubei could almost see the muscles rippling beneath his clothing as he tucked the wad of cash into his kimono. Of course, he hadn't wasted any money on yukatas like the rest of them and was dressed in his normal garb. Speaking of muscles, Kyuubei anxiously ran her hands up her arms, feeling the chiseled structure of her hard-earned anatomy. Would he find that disgusting about her? Surely Gintoki preferred dainty, slim, and demure woman unlike herself, whose body had long since abandoned its fairy-like frailty due to her lifetime of training. She looked away as tears began stinging her eye. It was so frustrating, this love ordeal.

She loved him so much but couldn't spare any of that love for herself, and that was her problem. She had not the confidence to admit anything at all, because her lack of self-confidence always sparked these worrying possibilities in her mind. Kyuubei's fingers tugged at the grass, pulling up the emerald blades by their weak roots. _I was a fool to think that anything would be different today, _she thought miserably.

"Haha! Hey, everyone, look, I have sparklers! Let's do them really quick before the show starts!" Tae announced loudly. Kyuubei looked up to see her staring intensely at her, and Kyuubei instantly knew that she had no intention of inviting Kyuubei along. As Kagura and Shinpachi gleefully scampered over to her to take handfuls of sparklers from the young woman, Tae gestured with her chin to Gintoki before spiriting the two young people further down the riverbank, where it was less populated.

Now, Gintoki and Kyuubei were alone.

The young swordswoman swallowed anxiously and looked at the silver-haired man. He had laid back in the grass with his hands behind his head and one leg propped lazily on the other; put a piece of hay in his mouth and he would be the picture of a contemplative farmer boy. She would've thought that his gray eyes would be fixated on the glittering stars above, but when Kyuubei looked, she was both fascinated and appalled by the fact that they were trained intently on her. She straightened up like a rod and pulled her arms against her chest as if to shield herself from their intense stare, flushing a deep pink. Silence settled between them as she just watched him thoughtfully watching her, before he sighed deeply and pulled himself back up into a sitting position, rubbing the back of his neck with a pouty look.

"Well, if you've got something to say, wouldja say it already? Tae won't be able to keep those kids entertained for long," he said bluntly. Though he was facing forward, those glittering gray eyes that looked like stars themselves were gazing at her with all the intensity of supernovas. It greatly unsettled her that he could see through her so easily and was terrified that he knew exactly what she was going to say already, and had just decided to outright reject her. Fidgeting nervously and playing with her hands, she looked meekly down at her lap. For all her strength and prowess, Kyuubei was helpless in the battlefield that was love, it seemed.

"Gintoki… Do you think… Someone could love me?" she asked finally, in a hushed whisper. She did not look up to see how his expression had morphed; she was afraid to. "I resolved once… To walk a path as neither a man nor a woman, because that is who I am in the truest sense, but… I am beginning to think… That I will have to choose one side or the other," she frowned deeply. "How can a man find me beautiful, or a woman find me handsome, if I exist in a state that is in-between? Have I doomed myself?" Her bottom lip wobbled as tears welled up in her eye before flowing over her cheek in a thin stream that absorbed the heavenly light from above to glow like liquid diamond against her pale skin. Finally, she brought herself to look up at him, and this time he was finally looking at the inky black sky above.

"Damn. That's heavy," he huffed quietly. Kyuubei grew saddened; he would probably say to her that she should ask Tae these questions, because what would he know about it. He exhaled loudly as he scratched at his head. At least, it looked like he was trying to find a way to put it delicately. "Look, sure, some people might not understand it, but I don't think that it makes you completely unlovable. The whole point is to find somebody who loves you no matter what, right? So why should you worry about being appealing to everybody?" He grumbled in an attempt to seem comforting.

"I don't want to be appealing to _everybody_!" Kyuubei interjected suddenly, and he looked at her in shock. Placing her hands against the cool grass, she leaned forward so that she was looking up at him with a face contorted in agony. For a second, her heart twisted in her chest and her lungs writhed as she attempted to force the words out of her throat, and then suddenly they were out in the open, leaving her mouth in a soft breath that hid the impossible effort of bringing them forth. "I want to appeal to _you_, Gintoki…" When she realized what exactly had come out of her mouth, she hung her head, black hair falling over her face. It wasn't how she had imagined it happening, and it was a pathetic display.

_He makes me this way… I can't think straight, and I am just so afraid of how I'll come off… _she thought with a sniffle. All her investigating and research had been fruitless; she could not draw on it for her muddled mind and racing heart. Surely he was trying to hide his derision for her right now. She slowly raised her head as the silence pricked uncomfortably at her skin. She hadn't been sure what she was expecting, but it was something far from the gentle, soft smile he was giving her right now. Kyuubei's heart stilled in her chest as she drew in one final breath. That look alone seemed to send her to Heaven.

"Well, you don't have to worry about that, because I think you're just fine." The tears began flowing faster down her cheek. She couldn't tell if he truly knew the depth of what she had said or if he was just being his same nonchalant self. Above their heads, the fireworks suddenly exploded into colorful brilliance; while everyone else's eyes were trained on the artwork of the heavens, the two of them had eyes only for each other. Kyuubei watched guardedly as he resumed that same powerful stare that seemed to piece her soul like the sharp edge of a katana to draw it out into the open, raw and sparking like a firework itself. Her eyes trailed upward a little to the silver curls of his messy hair, because they were no longer that hue of tempered steel; like it was a blank canvas, his hair was being painted with the light of the exploding fireworks above, dazzling splashes of red and green and blue and gold. All the while, he just gazed at her, as if waiting for what she would do next. Did she want him to spell it out for him? The sadist. Her hand twitched with desire to thread her fingers through the strands. An instant later she followed through; almost as if her body was moving on its own, she reached up to do so, watching as the colors played across her slender digits that were weaving through the impossibly soft fibers. Suddenly she realized what she was doing and moved to snatch her hand back, but Gintoki caught her by the wrist. "Don't throw me into the river," he warned in a voice that rumbled like rolling thunder in the distance.

He grabbed her other hand and pulled it to rest on his shoulder, purposely forcing her to scoot forward on her knees lest she lose her balance. She was nearly chest-to-chest with him now, and because she was sitting up on her knees, she was nearly nose-to-nose with him as well. Every nerve in her body was bursting with electricity as she physically fought against doing what Gintoki had literally just asked her not to do; she still had a lot of problems managing physical affection from men. Even if she wanted to move, she really couldn't; it was like his gaze had electrified her, rooting her frozen to the spot. She drew in a small, sharp breath as one of his hands settled at her hips and the other rose to gently caress her cheek, fingertips drawing an indistinct pattern in the soft, sensitive skin. "You still have something you wanna say, don't you?" he mused in a low voice.

"I-I love you," she whispered through quivering lips. _I said it, _she thought and her shoulders sagged a little, as if the weight of the world had been lifted off her. A smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth as he regarded her playfully, until his face relaxed and he leaned in towards her own. Kyuubei's eyes drifted shut of their own accord, the ghosts of the exploding fireworks momentarily dancing in the darkness as she awaited the inevitable. His mouth melded over hers as if it had always belonged her, moving in a gentle yet passionate kiss. Kyuubei melted against him as her breath was all but whisked away from her, and her heart beat like a drum in tandem to the popping fireworks dazzling the sky, and she thanked the gods that this day did indeed end differently than all the others.

Thus the sparks flew that night, both above their heads and between two students of the sword…


	5. Ghosts

Category: General Fluff

Characters: Gintoki Sakata, Katsura Kotarou

Requested By: Hawk (FanFiction)

Gintoki screwed up his face in mild annoyance as he teased his fingers through his silver hair, which was brightened to the point of ephemeral sheen as he strolled the streets of Kabukicho in the deep of the night. It was uncharacteristic of him to be awake in the wee hours of the morning; normally, by this time, not even a parade of stampeding animals- hell, even a nuclear holocaust- could awaken him. Uncharacteristic, but not completely exceptional, either. Every once in a blue moon, Gintoki found that his mind simply raced to the point that sleep evaded him- and so, he took to patrolling the streets like a specter. It wasn't an unfitting description, either, because Gintoki only ever got like this when he was particularly haunted by the horrors of his past.

Gintoki was easy-going and carefree, but not completely infallible. Every so often, his darkness snuck up on him. He could lay there and stare at the ceiling while the bloody images burned into his eyeballs, but that really wasn't an appealing option. Out here, at least, bathed under the tranquil light of the moon and the shining glitter of the stars that outlined the stark silhouettes of the various establishments and homes, there was almost enough visually to distract Gintoki from those awful thoughts. _Almost_.

They snuck up on him unexpectedly. He'd look down at his hands and find them splattered with rich red blood that glowed ruby in the light, or he'd look down an alleyway to find a piled mound of corpses, piled high and rotting. No one would ever know it with the way he charged fearlessly into battle, but even Gintoki was not immune to it. If he had no remorse about the crimes against nature that he had committed, he would truly be a monster. Every warrior had their nightmares. Every soldier had their remorse. It was simply the reparations for the choices he had made. Though if one asked him, Gintoki would deny that he had any regrets, and it would be true. He was a man that was very fastidious in his beliefs, and he would soak his hands in blood a thousand times over without thinking twice- but that didn't stop him from awaking in cold sweats sometimes.

He tipped his head back with a long, drawn-out sigh, tired eyes beholding the heavens. He wasn't a sentimental guy, really; he didn't stop to smell the roses or think hard on the simple pleasures of life. However, during his irregular midnight meandering, his eyes were always drawn up to the black canvas punctured with pinpricks of light. Something about the cold, indignant white rays were oddly comforting- like he was convincing himself that the heavens passed no judgement. They shone on him, a blood-drenched sinner, and a divine saint just as equally. Gintoki really didn't think much into the matters of life after death and potential punishments for his transgressions, but he wouldn't say that he never thought about it, either. It was a characteristic of being human, wondering about what happened next. It would flicker in his mind for just a brief moment, like a will-o-the-wisp bobbing through the dark wood of his mind. Then he'd force it away, because what was the point? He would know when he died.

His feet carried him to the local graveyard, almost like he really was a wandering spirit attracted to the realm of the dead. He strolled silently through the rows and rows of gray stones inscribed with those he never knew but called out to him anyway. Samurai, housewives, criminals, construction workers, shopkeepers, shoguns- at the end of the day, they were all just destined to be put in a hole in the ground six foot deep. At the drop of a hat, one's life is snuffed out and nothing matters anymore. Gintoki never knew whether to find that humbling or disturbing.

The only sound were the gentle strikes of his sandaled feet against the cobblestone path. It pounded in his ears like the somber beating of a death knell drum- or was it a headache from lack of sleep? After a point, Gintoki's mind began to grow muddled and foggy. It was usually a sign that he was near the point of exhaustion. Sometimes he would be able to stagger back to the Yorozuya and collapse into his futon, and sometimes he would pass out somewhere in the sprawl of Kabukicho, like some common drunk tottering back from a binger. It really was a coin toss.

Gintoki was about to do just that and head back when suddenly his footsteps weren't the only sound in the graveyard. In the near distance, he could hear a soft voice- like someone was speaking to a grave. Not unusual in itself, but unusual for the time of night. On a whim, he decided to investigate and follow the sound, eventually coming upon someone sitting across from a gravestone talking quietly about daily life.

"Zura?"

"It's Katsura. What are you doing out so late, Gintoki?" The former Joui patriot asked with a wry smile and a glance out of the corner of his eyes. With an indignant snort, Gintoki tucked his hand into the fold of his kimono and eyed him grudgingly.

"I could ask you the same question." Katsura languidly lolled his head over his shoulder to smirk at him sardonically. Honestly, there was no point in interrogating each other, because they were both out for the same reasons and they both knew it. Spying a sake bottle sitting beside the long-haired man, Gintoki strolled over to lean down and snatch it up, draining the bottle of a third of its contents in one swig. The clear rice wine burned his throat as it washed down his throat, but ironically rather than muddying his mind further, he found the sleepy fog lifting.

"Rude, stealing a man's offering like that," Katsura huffed. With an equally incensed puff, Gintoki sat the bottle down beside him again, its ceramic surface striking loudly against the smooth cobblestone.

"There's plenty left. Don't be greedy." Gintoki's eyes flashed to the characters inscribed on the grave marker. _Nobunobu, of course. _Gintoki had never been privy to the exact details of what had gone down in the Amanto spaceship in the sky, but he was very familiar with the fact that Katsura now felt some kind of deep kinship with the deceased shogun. Apparently, the former coward had reformed himself tremendously under the duress of the world ending. It was interesting; normally, such a situation brought out the worst in people, not the best. Gintoki crouched down beside Katsura to stare levelly at the gray stone with not a thought in his mind at all. Katsura sat beside him, eyes closed and arms crossed as he meditated under the cold light of the moon.

"Do you ever wonder if there's no need for men like us anymore?" Katsura asked suddenly, softly. Gintoki's gaze flickered to him to see him once more eyeing him thoughtfully out of the corners of his eyes. Gintoki pondered on the question for a moment before returning his stare to the gravestone.

"Looking to throw in the towel already? How unlike you, Zura," he said, but there was not playful or mocking tone in his voice. It was level and unfeeling, matching his expressionless face. "Of course I wonder," he answered after another brief period of silence. "But then, what would be left of me? I am who I am, so I'm just gonna keep on bein' me until the world decides to do me in," he shrugged nonchalantly. He could be unnecessary in the grand scheme of things, but to a certain corner of the world, he was necessary. There were people who depended on him to be Gintoki, and that was enough for him. They accepted him, blood-stained hands and all. There wasn't really much need for him to change or question his place in the world. He had one.

Katsura's mouth curled into a slight smirk as he exhaled sharply from his nose.

"How like you." Gintoki shrugged again and threaded his fingers through his silvery hair. He plucked up the sake bottle to partake in its contents just like Gintoki had earlier, then poured the lingering third of the alcohol over the top of the gravestone. With lidded eyes, Gintoki watched the shiny silver surface of the porous stone darken to an ashy gray as the pearls of liquid slowly traveled down its surface in many rivers. He wasn't sure if Katsura wanted him to say more. He didn't have much to say. He was a samurai, not a philosopher. "Good talk, Gintoki," Katsura mused and clapped him on the shoulder before standing up. Gintoki swallowed the wry quip that it wasn't really much of a chat at all, just two forgotten relics brooding in the dark together. With a small sigh, he pushed himself up into a standing position as well, lamenting the burning creak in his knees. He should know better than to squat like that for so long. Katsura twirled the empty sake bottle in his hand as he regarded him with a small smile. "You ever think the nightmares will stop?" _Way to get to the heart of the matter, Zura. _

"Nah," Gintoki answered immediately with another glance at the forlorn moon. The wind blew suddenly, rustling the thick fabric of their kimonos and shaking the leaves of the trees planted in the graveyard, as if the world had given its affirmation to his answer. "But they're only nightmares, after all," he added indifferently, as if they weren't the very thing that had him roaming the night like a lost soul. He wandered and wallowed, but he always found his way back home. "It's always fine once morning comes." He would never admit it, but he'd always forget the lurid visions of war once he was greeted by Kagura and Shinpachi's bright, childish faces. Dawn was never out of his reach.

"You really have it all figured out, don't you?"

"Me?" Gintoki scoffed with a roguish grin. "Nah. You know me, Zura. I just make it up as I go along." The air rang with the patriot's airy laugh.

"I suppose you do." Katsura looked up at the sky again, then back at the silver-haired samurai. "Time to head home. Morning isn't far off," he said with a simple wave before whirling on his heel to begin striding back towards the entrance of the graveyard. He vanished like smoke, melting into the darkness. Gintoki smirked slightly and looked at the horizon, which was beginning to grow fuzzy with the faint trickle of yellow. He thought of Kagura and Shinpachi, asleep in their beds and eager to greet the day once morning came.

_Morning isn't far off, indeed. _


	6. Snapshot

_**Author's Note: **__Hello, everyone! This collection now features a Spotify playlist! Please follow the instructions in the index to access it. _

Category: Mild Romantic Fluff

Fandom: Gintama

Characters: Gintoki Sakata, Tae Shimura

Requested by: Asperger Hero (Ao3)

"Hiiiii~!" Tae warbled cheerfully as she strolled casually into the Yorozuya only just seconds after she had knocked at the door. The three employees of the joint all greeted her with varying degrees of enthusiasm; her cute little brother acknowledged her happily, Kagura gave a muffled greeting through a mouthful of rice, and Gintoki just grunted and did not look away from his weather program. She had to suppose a grunt was better than nothing, considering how absorbed he always was in the daily report.

"What brings you here this morning, Big Sister?" Shinpachi inquired as she sat down at the table. Tae giggled as anticipation bubbled up inside of her. This visit wasn't her average, every-day, just-happened-to-be-in-the-neighborhood house call. She grinned broadly as she produced a small camera from within the folds of her kimono.

"Look what I won in a work raffle! A Polaroid camera!"

"Whuzzat?" Kagura huffed as she swallowed a chunk of rice that would choke a normal person and leaned over the table to inspect the small device with curious eyes.

"It's a camera that instantly prints a picture you take! Here, smile, Kagura," Tae instructed as she put the camera up to her eye to focus. Kagura blinked before hurriedly striking a ridiculous pose, arms bent at odd angles and face twisted into a less-than-flattering expression. The flash burst as the shutter fluttered with Tae's finger pressing down on the button. The camera whirred and spat out a black square rimmed with white, and Tae took the photograph to start shaking it so it would develop. After a few seconds of vigorous shaking, she held it out for Kagura to see; the alien's eyebrows shot up to the roots of her hair as she was greeted with the crazy photo.

"Wow! That's so amazing!" she laughed, snatching the photo up to run over to Gintoki and stick it in his face. "Look, Gin, it's me!"

"Fascinating. Now _move_," he grumped and fell onto his side so that he could once more behold the cute weathergirl chattering amiably on the television. Kagura pursed her lips and puffed out her cheeks in childish protest. Gin yelped as she kicked him hard in the shin, and as he curled up on the carpet whimpering and holding the potentially fractured bone, Kagura scampered innocently back over to the table to sit next to Tae.

"You should get pictures of everyone! We can put them all on a board in here!" the young girl suggested excitedly.

"What a wonderful idea! It will really liven up the place!" Tae agreed. There were worse ways to spend a day, after all. Tae smiled eagerly as she held the camera between her hands. She couldn't wait to see what kind of memories the little camera would record. _It's really lucky that I won this little prize~ _she thought as she snapped a rather candid photo of Shinpachi with half a fried egg hanging out of his mouth. Kagura snatched the photo up and started running in circles around the table while Shinpachi chased her, desperate to rip the damning picture in half. Tae turned to look at the white-haired man still lounging lazily in front of the television, occasionally eclipsed by the two running teenagers. A faint haze of pink appeared on her cheeks as she hugged the camera to her chest.

_Maybe… I can keep one or two for myself, too? _

After a day of hunting down literally everyone they knew, Tae and the two children were back at the table, pinning a collection of pictures to a large corkboard that they were going to hang in the main room. Tae had to say, she outdid herself with the menagerie. She had a nice shot of Sadaharu playing fetch with a frisbee, one of Otose smoking her pipe thoughtfully while admiring the sky, one of cute Tama sweeping contentedly, and one of Catherine flirting shamelessly with a man who looked not the least bit interested and daresay even a little frightened.

After that point, people had started crashing the party and Tae had snapped random photos to just see and what she accomplished, and the results had been fun; she had a shot of her crazy gorilla stalker Isao laying upside-down in a destroyed fruit stand where Tae had hurled him (that she was only keeping because Kagure found it hilarious) and one of Hijikata and Okita embroiled in a fist fight with Gin and Kagura. The princess Soyo had come to play with Kagura, and Tae had snapped a very cute shot of them having tea time. They had ventured down to Yoshiwara and got a photo of Hinowa, Seita, and Tsukuyo strolling through the lantern-lit streets. Tae had taken a photo with Kyuubei as well, and thought it was so adorable how shy she looked. Somehow she had also managed to nab a photo of the strange long-haired patriot Katsura and his companion Elizabeth wearing mustache disguises (that were being wrenched off by a very angry Hijikata in the photo) and it was funny, so Tae kept it. She had one of Ayame the ninja, too- specifically, one of her hanging out of a window calling lewdly to Gin as he tried his best to speed-walk away. The next shot was of her jumping out of the window to fall right on top of him. Tae thought they were nice companion pieces.

Finally, the centerpiece was grumpy Gin lounging in front of his television poring over Ketsuono Ana. Tae giggled as she pinned it to the board; surely, there was nothing so unequivocally Gin than that photo. He was watching through lidded eyes as the excited trio hung up their finished product and stood back to admire it.

"Are you finally done? Does that mean you're done dragging me all over town?" he whined as he picked at his nose with his pinky. _So vulgar, _she thought, but with an undeniable hint of fondness.

"Tae! Can we please keep the camera?" Kagura begged suddenly, tugging on her arm. "We want to add more photos, and we'll have to have a camera to snag them, yes?" Tae smiled wanly at the precious girl; the camera would be only a novel and temporarily amusement to Tae. She knew in her heart that the children would derive much more long-lasting and meaningful amusement from it, and it was no loss to her since she had gotten it for free. Still… Her eyes wavered as they settled on the bored-looking man. He had been very unexcited about posing for photos, so Tae really hadn't gotten any good pictures of him. Tae flushed and looked down at her feet when his eyes suddenly flickered to meet hers. Was it creepy that she wanted a picture of him? Just one… Then she could relinquish the camera to Kagura with no regrets.

"Oi. Take your dog out before he pisses on my floor," Gin barked to Kagura as Sadaharu whined miserably at the door. Kagura stuck her tongue out at the rude man but obediently jumped up to scamper over to open the door.

"Come, Shinpachi, let us take Sadaharu for a walk!"

"What? Oh, okay," the spectacled boy shrugged and followed after her. The door clicked shut behind him.

Tae and Gin were now alone.

"What's that look for?" The smirk on his face was positively devious. Could he know what she was thinking? "You want a picture of me all for yourself, is that it~?" Tae flinched at how easily he seemed to read her mind. She could only shuffle her feet and blush as he peeled himself up off the floor to scroll languidly over to her and take the camera in his hands to begin inspecting it critically. With how close he was standing to her, it was impossible not to notice how he towered over her in an effortlessly sexy manner… Tae's cheeks turned dark red. Had she really just used "sexy" and "Gintoki" in the same thought process. Oh, yes, she had. She still was. It was all she could think about, even. "I really don't get the big deal about this thing…"

"It doesn't matter! I'm going to give it to Kagura!" Tae stammered as she reached for the camera. Gin clicked his tongue and held it high above her head, out of reach. "Gin! Give it here! You don't care, so why are you teasing me?" she whined pitifully as she stood on her tip-toes to try and reach the camera. Her fingertips could only graze the underside of its plastic surface. Her chest kept bumping into his as she wobbled in front of him, and he tilted his head back as the crown of his head tickled his chin. He was smirking widely, obviously very entertained by her fruitless efforts. "You meanie!" she said and puffed her cheeks at him angrily.

"Mean? I was going to take a photo with you, Tae; I don't think that's mean at all." Tae ought to be alarmed by the edge to his voice, she really ought to, but that was secondary to the effect his words were having on her brain right then. She fell back onto the flats of her feet as she stared owlishly up at him.

"Really? I thought you weren't interested."

"Just shut up and stand still," he purred as he slowly slipped an arm around her shoulders, letting it hang there loosely as he adjusted so her was standing next to her. His other arm was raised to position the camera down towards them. Tae could only stare at the black lens, shocked at how easy it had been for Gintoki to agree.

Of course, things were never that simple with him.

She gasped loudly as his hand suddenly snapped up to grab her chin and turn her face. Her vision was a blur of his white hair and silver eyes and devilish grin and the flash of the shutter. He had concluded the act far before her mind registered to softness of his lips against hers; by the time the sensation had reached her nerves, he had already pulled back and dropped the camera in her hands to go flop down in front of the television. She looked blankly down at the developing photograph, mind whirling in storm of confusion. Surely she had just imagined that, right? There was no way Gin would kiss her…

The image slowly came to life in the black film. Sure enough, there it was, indisputable evidence of their lip-locking. Gintoki was smugly side-eyeing the camera as he smirked against Tae's smushed lips, while her eyes were wide and locked on his face. She blinked once, twice, a third time for good measure to see if the image distorted at all. Nope. There it still was, clear as day.

"Ehhhhhhhhh?!" she screeched in a conglomeration of alarm, shock, anger, and stupid glee. "Gintoki! You can't just _do_ stuff like that!"

"What? Did you not like it?"

"Th-that's beside the point."

"So you _did_ like it."

"I-I didn't say that!"

"Oh? Want me to try again?"

"_Gintoki_!" His shoulders shook in a baleful laugh before he tossed a smile at her. That smile made her heart stop. It wasn't a smile of mischievousness or teasing, but genuine affection.

"Be sure to keep that a secret from Shinpachi. He won't like it." Tae stiffened before stuffing the photo into one of the pockets sewn into the inside of her kimono. "And Tae?"

"Y-yes?"

"Drop by more often. I get tired of Shinpachi griping about how he doesn't get to see you with how much you work." She blinked as he turned back to the television, grabbing the remote to flip idly through the channels. It took a moment for the request to register, and when it did, her eyes softened as she smiled lovingly. What a Gintoki way of saying things. Never could be to the point, could he?

"Hehe… Sure thing."

She left the camera on the table for Kagura and left. As she walked home, she pulled out the photo, holding it in both hands as she walked home. Her eyes crinkled up with happiness as she admired it, her new treasure.

"Sure thing…"


	7. Purgatory

Category: General Fluff

Fandom: Gintama

Characters: Toshiro Hijikata, Shinsuke Takasugi

Requested By: Gintama Fangurl (FanFiction)

_**Alternatum to Ghosts**_

Toshiro frowned and angrily kicked the cigarette dispensing machine in an attempt to dislodge the pack of cigarettes that had jammed itself in the rotating dispensary springs. It wobbled as if it were going to dislodge, but then fell still in a clear effort to try his nerves. After several kicks gradually increasing in severity, all he had earned for himself was an aching foot. He cursed the defective machine under his breath as he shoved his hands in his pockets and began stalking down the street. He supposed it was as good a reason as any to follow-up on the notion that he was going to try to quit smoking- the notion that he had been perpetuating for quite a while but just couldn't seem to actually accomplish.

"Well… At least it's quiet," he sighed to himself as he walked alone through the night. The stores were still open catering to customers, but the atmosphere was light; he didn't have to go chasing down shoplifters or beating up alleyway muggers. Ever since the conclusion to the Utsuro incident a year ago, the crime rate had dramatically decreased. Of course, it wasn't zero, and so Toshiro and the rest of the Shinsengumi still had their hands full on a daily basis. Still, he didn't have to go around chasing Joui patriots or fending off doomsday, so his stress levels had adjusted accordingly. Sometimes, probably for nostalgia's sake, he still got that urge to smoke, though. The world just seemed to take him too seriously on his noble commitment and somehow managed to bungle his efforts to acquire a cigarette. If that was the most of his problems, though, Toshiro supposed that he should be grateful.

His craving for a smoke morphed into a craving for a drink, so he stopped into a quaint little joint and ordered himself a hot black tea. At this time of night, most patrons were partaking in alcoholic beverages, but Toshiro didn't care to trade his chain-smoking habit for an alcohol-chugging one. Eyes lidded as he watched the couple of drunks raucously playing poker in the corner, he didn't take much notice of the man who slid into the bar stool beside him until he heard him order a black tea as well. _Wait a second… I know that voice, _he thought with a slight scowl and whirled around on the seat to be greeted with the smirking visage of one Shinsuke Takasugi.

Toshiro wondered for a moment if his drink was alcoholic after all, because he was pretty certain that the man sitting beside him had been dead for about a year.

"Don't look so surprised," Shinsuke purred in amusement. "My specialty happens to be crawling my way out of Hell." There was an air of light-heartedness about him, undermined by the subtle pang of guardedness, as he casually swirled the dark liquid around in the clay cup and eyed Toshiro out of the corner of his one good eye. The police officer deliberated for a moment on his course of action; even if a majority of the crimes of Gintoki and his compatriots had been pardoned, Shinsuke Takasugi had a pretty impressive rap sheet of crimes against the state. He had no reason to return to Edo aside from causing trouble. Yet… He didn't seem to be up to much good and it wasn't very like him to turn up at public venues, let alone plop right down beside one of the leading members of the Shinsengumi. Honestly, Toshiro wasn't much in the mood to scrap with him, either. It was pretty good tea he was holding in his hand at the moment and he'd hate for it to spill and be wasted. He pursed his lips as he eyed Shinsuke critically.

"So what the hell are you here for?"

"Such hostility. You haven't changed much," he snorted with obvious distaste. The smirk fell from his lips to be replaced with a stony, blank, thin-lipped stare. "What became of Gintoki?"

"Spent the year living in a hole, didja?" Toshiro sighed and leaned his cheek in his fist with a return of his narrow-eyed expression. "That rent-dodging, apathetic asshole is still running his Yorozuya with the brats. Most often when I actually do have to answer calls about disturbances in town, its him and his cronies." Try as he may, he could not keep the faint hint of affection from staining his voice. Gintoki was an absolute bastard and a stain on society in many respects, but there was just something so likeable about him that even the tough, gritty Toshiro couldn't help but look upon him in mild fondness. Perhaps it was simply the rose-colored glasses of the former samurai saving the world a few times over that tainted his impression of him. "Why do you ask?"

"Believe it or not, even I referred to people as 'friends' once," he remarked smoothly with a sordid look down into his half-drunk glass of hot tea. "On some level, I wish for him to be doing well."

"Look at that. Shinsuke Takasugi, turning over a new leaf. I _must_ be drunk," he countered with a suspicious glance into what appeared to be tea but could very well be tea-like sake that remained sloshing around in his cup. He bristled a little when the patriot released what sounded like some bastardization of a chuckle, but was darker and more edged with iron, fitting his edgy personality and look.

"A new leaf? Maybe," he said quietly with a faraway look. What was it about this bastard that made Toshiro unable to get a read on him? "I was dead, and yet I live. I'm just a specter wandering around looking for reason, I suppose," he said after a few seconds of silence.

"Didn't you have followers?"

"They're either dead or gone," he responded levelly. Toshiro wouldn't have thought it possible, but his expression softened slightly as he continued, "There's one who still follows me around, but… She has nothing going for her otherwise, so I suppose it is a matter of necessity rather than choice." He exhaled slightly and leaned back, rolling his shoulders lazily as he closed his eye. "Regardless, it is apparent that my endeavors and wishes in my 'past life,' as it were, are no longer sufficient to sustain my existence."

"Pity." There was not an iota of pity in his voice, nor in his body. Yet, he wasn't triumphant about it, either. Toshiro didn't pity him, but he understood being lost. Two years after the first clash with Utsuro, after he had been dismissed from the Shinsengumi, he had been trapped in that very limbo. He had occupied himself by forming a local police gang with other discredited members, but… It wasn't fulfilling. It was just meaningless fluff that tried to fill the void but ultimately fell short. "So… You think Gintoki has the answers you're looking for?" he continued slowly, eyeing him out of the corners of his eyes. The smirk returned to the patriot's mouth, albeit faintly.

"I wouldn't go that far… I suppose it's more that I'm wondering how he did it. Moved on so easily, after the hell that we all went through," he murmured thoughtfully. It did seem that way on the surface, the white-haired man had himself all put together and was totally unbothered. It seemed that way, but Toshiro didn't doubt that the man had his nightmares, just like every war-scarred veteran, that the scent of iron and the screams of pain hovered just beyond his waking reality ready to pounce in moments of weakness. Toshiro knew exactly what Gintoki would tell him, too.

"There is no moving on," he said and drained the last dregs of his tea, "there's just living, or dying. That's all." Shinsuke's eyebrow quirked as Toshiro stood up and dropped a few coins on the counter for the shopkeeper.

"Interesting. You sound just like him."

"Don't insult me." Toshiro frowned at him as he laughed dryly, then began fishing around in the folds of his kimono. His eyebrows raised as he produced a pack of cigarettes and held it out to him. It was the brand he had been wrestling with earlier. He wondered if the pack had fallen down after a time thanks to gravity, or if Shinsuke had sliced apart the machine to claim Toshiro's forgone purchase. He didn't fancy returning to the vending machine to find out. The patriot shook the carton emphatically in offering. Toshiro's teeth nibbled at the edge of his bottom lip as he considered it. "No thanks."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I've moved on," he remarked with a small smirk before dipping his head in farewell, not glancing back to see what Shinsuke actually did with the cigarettes. He slipped his hands into the pockets of his pants as he whistled a light tune, head tilting back to behold the brilliant full moon shining amongst the glittering stars above, in a space so vast it was beyond comprehension. So small were they, in the expanse of the universe, yet everything in their lives seemed to big and important.

_Crawled your way outta Hell, huh? _He thought wryly._ Hope you make the best of purgatory... _


	8. Hope

Category: General Fluff

Characters: Nobume Imai, Shouyo Yoshida

Requested By: Anonymous (FanFiction)

_Why is he smiling? _

Nobume thought this frequently about the strange man contained behind the old iron bars over whom she kept watch. Nobume was young and had experienced little of the world, she supposed, but she knew well enough that being incarcerated surely was nothing to smile about. Yet, despite this very obvious fact, the long-haired man always bore a small, pleasant smile on his face when she delivered him his meals or lounged around beside his cell. He was always polite, thanking her for her deliveries and greeting her amiably when she tromped down the stone steps. What man in their right man would smile at their jailor? He was an odd man to Nobume, but somehow, she could not help but be curious about him- particularly, the strange writings he would etch into the dusty stone floor of his cell with a sharp-edged rock.

"What are you doing?" She finally worked up the nerve to ask him one day. With that same pleasant smile gracing his face, he looked up at her, one hand sweeping his long, pin-straight dusty-brown hair from his face while the other held up his etching rock.

"Mathematics. It does well to keep my brain sharp, lest I go crazy from boredom." There was laughter in his voice. What an odd man, indeed. What did he have to laugh about when he was slated to be executed? Most prisoners either curled up in their cells awaiting the inevitable in complete defeat, or pawed at her through the bars sobbing miserably and begging for mercy. The term was not in Nobume's vocabulary. It was not permitted to be. "Do you know how to do math, young lady?"

Nobume shook her head. Nobume had been taught many things, but traditional academic subjects was not considering required curriculum. She supposed only the most basic of counting skills was necessary for cold-blooded murder. "Do you know how to read?"

"Only what I need to know how to read."

"What about history?"

"Why do I need to know what a bunch of old men did way back when?" She was being a bit combative, but only for show. Nobume could not help but be curious. Normal children learned things like math, reading, and history. Nobume was far from normal; she was an assassin. She was taught all the places to strike and instantly kill her prey, not how to sew. She was taught how to creep through the thinnest of shadows, not how to cook. She was taught how to communicate in code, not how to read poems. Nobume knew all these things, and that was all she needed to know to survive under present circumstances. She ought not to get involved with this odd man- yet… Nobume felt curiosity tugging at her young heart. If she learned math, and reading, and history, could she perhaps be a little more normal? The promise of that temporary illusion was very swaying. "… Would you teach me these things, mister?" she asked, approaching the bars to peer at the upside-down scratches on the floor that she assumed were numbers.

"Of course. I am a teacher, and it is important for young ladies to know these things."

"I thought you were a criminal?"

The laugh he gave her this time was dry.

"I suppose it depends on how you look at it, now doesn't it?" His eyes glittered as he smiled at her. Nobume blinked as she compulsively swallowed; that smile was still kind and pleasant, and yet there was this hard edge to it that did not go unnoticed by her. An odd man indeed, but Nobume was going to stick by her decision. She walked close to the iron bars to sit down cross-legged in front of them, staring intently as the expanse of harsh gray stone that was to serve as the canvas for her lessons. "Now, then. Let us begin with the basics. Oh, before we begin- what is your name?"

"Nobume." It wasn't her name, not truly, but it was the only name she really knew to give. His smile was back to its previous form, all grace and kindness.

"Nobume. What a pretty name. My name is Shouyo."

* * *

Nobume was only into it for curiosity, initially, but as the days went on, she found that she quite enjoyed taking lessons from Shouyo. It wasn't only just the subject matter; he was patient with her. Though she very often performed tasks incorrectly, he never chastised her for erring the first time or two. Nobume was quite used to harsh reprimands for such failures. Instead of slapping her or cursing her like she was used to, when she tried to keep her bottom lip from trembling and tears prickling the corners of her eyes in frustration, he would reach through the bars to reassuringly pat her on the head.

"Don't be frustrated. These things come with time. You're very smart, Nobume, but most things worth learning can't be learned on the first try." He would always repeat that, like a mantra. Honestly, she still wasn't quite sure why the things he taught her were very important- at least not to her. Perhaps if she was a normal girl, they would be important. Despite the apparent lack of need, Nobume valued the things he taught her anyway. Nobume had never really resented her profession. She didn't have emotions- she wasn't permitted- so really, she didn't have resentment for anything. But, soon after she began being taught by the man, she felt this… stirring in her chest just thinking about what she would learn that day. She asked him about it, and he identified it as excitement. Excitement was an emotion felt by normal people.

Nobume feared that excitement. Fear was an emotion, too, and a grave emotion at that. Fear meant hesitation. Hesitation meant death, whether she died by the hand of someone she hesitated to kill or her superiors once they found out. Nobume thus tried to quell that excitement so that she didn't feel fear. As it turns out, erasing her emotions once she began having them again was very difficult. Thus, the flutters persisted. Somehow, she managed to keep them a secret.

Being normal was complicated. Being normal was dangerous. Dangerous, yet secretly in the very bottom of her blackened heart, Nobume relished it.

"Mister Shouyo?" she asked one day, quietly, meekly. His execution was approaching. She was the only one around him right now. She could ask her question freely, without fear of consequences. He gave her that same smile that would be etched into her memory forever, like the log of their lessons scrawled over the floor and walls of his cell, numbers and letters of countless lessons. He gave her that soft, kind smile as he looked up at her inquisitively.

"What is it, Nobume?"

"Do you think that someday I can be normal?" She whispered it at the lowest tone she could, as if speaking the words aloud at all were a grave sin. Reflexively, she hugged her arms close to her body and looked around. Her blank expression did not betray her anxiety, but the quivers in her balled fists did. No one sprung from the shadows to slice her throat. Shouyo was still smiling when she looked back to him.

"I don't know, Nobume," he admitted, setting down his rock before folding his hands in his lap. The smile fell from his face for the first time, replaced with a sad and serious expression. "I know many things, but the future isn't one of them." Disappointment. Another emotion. Nobume had been building a deadly repertoire of them over the last few weeks. The smile rose back onto his lips like a cloud, wispy and fleeting and thin. "Although," he said, "I like to think so. I think that fate is for you to decide."

She stared at him owlishly. For _her_ to decide? Nobume didn't register the concept of being in control of anything. Her life had been all but decided for her. She was told what to do, and she did what she was told without much thought. But then again… It was her decision to take these lessons, rather than ignore the odd, smiling man. It was her decision to continue despite the fact ancient relics of emotions had begun to awaken from slumber. Was Nobume really capable of such things? Decisions? Emotions? Freedom? _Mercy_?

A new emotion stirred in her body, an altogether unfamiliar one. It hummed like a low flame in her body, flickering and warm. "What do you feel, Nobume?" he asked her gently as tears welled up in her eyes and flowed down her round cheeks.

"I'm not sure," she answered honestly, placing her hands over her chest. "I feel it right here… It's warm… Pulsing… Spreading through my whole body… It makes me think of the future, and it's not dark, but bright."

"Ah." The smile he was wearing was shining and warm, just like the feeling glimmering inside her. "That, my dear, is what we call 'hope.'" _Hope. _She knew the word and the definition. Her superiors always associated it with feebleness and scorn. She was not sure why that was, now that she was feeling it for the first time. She did not feel feeble. She felt strong, capable, ready for whatever may come.

"Hope," she repeated softly. "Do you have hope, mister?"

"Yes, I do, but not for me," he said as he smiled off into the distance, out the teeny-tiny window of his cell. "I have hope for those that succeed me. They bear my dreams now."

Nobume blinked as he watched him envision people she could not see. She wondered if she would ever be able to meet them.

She hoped she would.


	9. The Purest Form of Love

Category: Romantic Fluff, Hurt and Comfort

Characters: Tae Shimura, Gintoki Sakata

Requested By: Anonymous User (FanFiction)

_This request technically just centered around Gintoki's smile, but somehow it evolved into a GinTae story… I hope that's okay! ^.^"_

"You know what I was just thinking, Big Sis? I don't think any of us have seen Gin-san ever smile for real."

Tae blinked and lowered her chopsticks from her mouth as she regarded her little brother with slightly wide eyes. The bespectacled boy rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he crossed his other arm across his chest, leaning back to stare up at the ceiling. His frown deepened when the ceiling tiles apparently refused to provide him elucidation as to why. "We've known him for so long, but I just can't ever picture a time when he was genuinely happy…"

"Can that man even feel true happiness?" Kagura grumbled as she scarfed down her bowl of rice and egg before downing her glass of water like a woman parched. Tae pursed her lips slightly as the uncouth girl burped loudly before looking at Shinpachi in disinterest. "You sure have funny thoughts in that head of yours, Shinpachi."

"It's just strange. Surely he has something to smile about."

"Gin-san is a complicated man," Tae shrugged as she resumed eating her own rice and egg. Kagura had taken up cooking seriously and invited Tae over to try her "signature creation," which was just a fried egg draped over a scoop of rice, but Tae wanted to encourage Kagura's budding talent. She never admitted it, but Tae knew her cooking skills were hopeless; someone in their friend group needed to learn to cook properly. It wasn't healthy for them to live off store-bought bento boxes forever, after all. Shinpachi hummed contemplatively under his breath as he rocked himself back and forth slightly, arms still crossed firmly at his chest.

"Gin-san is about as complicated as a paper hat," Kagura snickered with a devious glance into the living room where Gintoki was sprawled out in front of the small television, enraptured by the daily weather program's afternoon update. He was, unsurprisingly, ignoring them completely, giving the young alien girl leave to insult him all she wished with no fear of reprimand.

"There has to be something," Shinpachi repeated insistently. Tae had no idea why he chose this moment above all others to be so invested in Gintoki smiling, but she had to admit she was a wee bit curious. Thinking back, she couldn't recall a situation in which he genuinely smiled either. She snuck a languorous glimpse at him out of the corners of her eyes. Surely, even Gintoki had something that made him elated beyond measure? She wasn't truly sure. One wouldn't think it by looking at him, but Gintoki was a haunted man. Warriors always were. Their belief system was a double-edged sword; no true human being could be completely immune to the horrifying shock of taking another's life with their own two hands. Behind that apathetic expression was a man plagued with blood-soaked nightmares. Tae knew.

Tae knew, because Gintoki took to wandering when they got too bad, and he had ended up at her place many a time. The first had been a few times after he had taken Shinpachi under his wing; she had awoken in the dead of night to light rapping on her door. She had bustled to the front of her house, tying the loose flaps of her kimono closed and peeking through the door to find a very gloomy and half-awake Gintoki Sakata. She didn't know quite what to make of it, really. She could just tell by the hollow look in his eyes that something was deeply wrong. She had invited him in for tea. For once, he wasn't snarky or smirky, just eerily… quiet, like his mind was someplace else entirely while his body operated on autopilot in the physical plane. He kept apologizing for imposing, and Tae kept insisting that it was all right and he could tell her what was troubling him, but he never did. He never did, even after several years of random nighttime callings and cups of tea and assurances that it was _all right_. He would just drink his tea, sit there in silence until the sun began creeping over the horizon, apologize again and then vanish like a ghost. A flitting spirit that haunted Tae on occasion, trying to communicate but never knowing how.

No, Tae wasn't sure if Gintoki had any room in his scarred heart for true happiness anymore. He had known pain, so much pain, that it was hard to think about happiness without the tiny seed of doubt sprouting in the back of his mind. Tae wasn't sure, but she hoped so, for his sake.

"I would like to see Gin-san truly smile, just once," she whispered suddenly. She realized that she had spoken aloud when Shinpachi and Kagura looked at her incredulously. A faint blush rose to her cheeks and she fiddled nervously with her chopsticks. "What? Now I'm curious too!" It was a lie, a lame lie. Tae's primary motivation was not mere curiosity. Tae wanted Gintoki to be happy, because, well… She kind of loved him.

She wasn't sure when it started. Somehow, through it all, the misadventures and saving the world and melancholy midnight rendezvous, he just became such a constant presence in her life that she almost couldn't _help_ but love him. Tae really didn't understand love all that well; no amount of shoujo mangas and romantic dramas could explain it entirely. Surely, though, the way she felt around him, the rapt attention he demanded from her by simply being in the same room, the fine details she committed to memory that only someone in love would bother to note… That was love, no? Her mind began to spiral down a rabbit's den as she once more snuck his lounging form a lingering glance. Surely, wishing someone true happiness, that was the purest form of love there was…

"All right, then!" Kagura clapped her hands together gleefully, making the two Shimura siblings jump. "We shall quest to discover that which makes Gin-san smile!" Tae guessed that she was only mildly curious and most of her motivation came from having nothing better to do that day. It was no bother; any help was welcome, because Tae knew discovering what made Gintoki happy was not going to be an easy task.

No, not an easy task at all.

They tried everything. _Everything_, everything they could think of. They surprised him with the newest weekly _Jump_ issue and only got a small crack of a smile. They took him to the pachinko parlor and Tae even gave him a stack of cash to waste and the delight never reached his eyes. They took him to get that ungodly sweet red bean abomination he always ordered at the one food stall, and though they watched him with obsessed rapture every second he shoveled that grossness into his mouth, his lips never even curled. Tae managed to weasel Ketsuno Ana into dropping by, and even though Gintoki damn near fell on his knees to kiss her feet, the happiness was forced, every single time. By the end of the day, Tae was beginning to fear that the former samurai really had been robbed of every molecule of dopamine in his body.

"This is hopeless," Shinpachi groused as they dragged their feet back to the Yorozuya. Gintoki, having been treated like a king all day, was strolling on ahead with his hands resting behind his head. The high-pitched tune he was whistling floated back on the gentle breeze to fill their ears with tinny notes. "We've tried everything that is so inherently Gin-san, and nothing. It's hopeless."

"I told you. The man cannot feel true happiness," Kagura scoffed haughtily, chewing on a beef jerky stick Tae bought for her at the local convenience store. Tae knitted her eyebrows worriedly before peeking at Gintoki out of the corners of her eyes. If he heard Kagura's base insult, he made no show of it; no tensed posture, no glances back, no self-pitying laughs. Just that repetitive tune, floating back on the wind like his apparently dreary soul.

"Kagura-chan, don't say such things," Tae chastised her quietly, despite the nagging possibility that she was unfortunately right. After all their efforts, how had they not managed to see any flicker of happiness within Gintoki's silver eyes? It was like they were bottomless pools, deep and dark and abysmal. Tae watched his broad back as he shuffled along in front of them, seemingly oblivious to their avid discussion. _Gin-san… Are you purposefully preventing yourself from feeling happiness? Do you not feel worthy? _She wondered.

* * *

It was late in the evening by the time they returned to the Yorozuya. Kagura made them dinner, a simple beef stew, and though she meant to leave a dozen times, Tae ended up passing out beside the kotatsu table right alongside the two youngsters while Gintoki lazily flipped through the television channels. The persistent drone of conversation and recorded television laughter kept Tae trapped in a state of hazy half-sleep. She lay on her belly with half her body cocooned in the dull, pulsing heat from the table, head resting on her arms as she blearily watched Gintoki in the living room. Her eyes kept slowly drifting shut before fluttering open, as if she were making sure he was still there. Caught on the border between consciousness and sleep, Tae's mind wandered frivolously.

_Gin-san… What makes you happy? Did all those things make you happy, but you denied yourself the feeling as punishment? What are you punishing yourself for? Are your sins truly that burdening? I wish you would talk to me. I would never forsake you, Gin-san, no matter what you did. I love you, Gin-san… _

"I love you," she breathed as her lashes fluttered again and her unfocused eyes fixed on his lounging form in front of the television. She didn't even realize that she had uttered it aloud. Lips slightly parted in dumb haze, her brown eyes sluggishly followed him as he flipped off the television and sauntered over to the kotatsu table. Her body was long past the point of being numb, so she couldn't move if she tried. He clicked his tongue disdainfully as he scratched the back of his head and looked at his two protégés curled up beneath the kotatsu table.

"Tch. Didn't your mothers ever teach you not to fall asleep at a kotatsu table?" The words were harsh, but the tone was nothing if not loving. Tae's eyes slowly trailed over his body until they arrived at his face, which was perfectly illuminated by the moonlight. That's when she saw it… A smile, a true one, the most beautiful thing that had ever graced Tae's vision. His eyes were lidded as he gazed down at Shinpachi and Kagura with an intense brotherly affection. "Dumb kids…" _So beautiful… So this is Gin-san's true smile… _Perhaps it was her half-sleep delirium, or perhaps it was the fact that their day full of toil had been rewarded- either way, a tear slipped from Tae's eye to roll down her cheek. Something about the smile adorning his face moved her in such a way. She wished Shinpachi and Kagura could see it, but she also secretly relished the fact that she alone saw it. It was a secret for her alone to treasure.

She lamented the loss of the image as Gintoki walked down the hall. He came back a minute later carrying a trio of thick blankets. It was autumn; the small abode grew cold at night. Grunting as he squatted down, he draped the first blanket over Kagura and the second of Shinpachi. The young girl murmured something about "you won't get away with this" before rolling on her other side, smacking her lips as she snuggled up into the folds of the blanket. Tae was overjoyed to see that smile appear on his face as he gently stroked her pinkish-red hair with a big palm. "Tough little Kagura… Don't let them get away with it, ya hear?" Shinpachi snored softly beside her. Gintoki carefully eased his glasses off the boy's face before folding them up and setting them on the kotatsu table. Tae's heart stopped in her chest as he suddenly got up and strolled around to the other side of the kotatsu table to where she lay. If she had been in an intelligent state of mind, she would've pretended to be asleep. Instead, she just stared up at him with one wet eye as he came around. It took him a second to notice, but when he kneeled down to lay a blanket over her, his silvery eyebrows shot up his forehead.

"Tae? You're crying," he frowned, looking uncomfortable with the information. "Did you… Have a bad dream?"

"No. I'm just glad. I'm glad that I finally know what makes Gin-san truly happy," she admitted with a contented breath. She really was happy; her entire body was humming with the bubbly emotion, like she was filled to the brim with soap suds. Gintoki stared down at her with a puzzled expression before he smirked.

"So that's what all that was about today?"

"Mhmm." She found that she could move again, and so she shifted her body a little as the cold air began to creep in through the thin fabric of her kimono. Another tear leaked from her eyes when that familiar smirk melted into that gorgeous smile that was imprinted into her memory forever. "Such a beautiful smile… I was afraid I wouldn't see it. I was afraid that Gin-san refused to let himself be happy." It fell from his face as he again looked at her in surprise. Desperate to see it on his face again, she pushed herself up with her hands to grab clumsily onto the front of his clothes, hauling herself up his body to drape her thin arms around his neck. One hand cupped his face as she brought her face close, much to close for societal norms but her sleep-fogged mind couldn't process that. "Please be happy, Gin-san. You deserve it just the much as the rest of us." Tears sparkled on her lashes as they beaded like dew from her runny eyes. She felt the muscles of his chest tense impossibly tight as he drew in a hissing breath.

"You should be careful, saying these things and touching a man this way." His voice was a rumble like thunder in the distance, vibrating like a cat's purr against Tae's chest. That smirk was back, curling and almost inflammatory as he stared at her. Those pools of his eyes were beginning to boil with a heat that sent liquid fire through Tae's veins, making her skin grow unbearably hot all of a sudden. His hand rose to take a tight grip of her wrist. Tight, like he was strung between the decision of pulling her hand away or holding it there so he could turn his face and kiss her palm. "You should consider the consequences of your actions, Tae." His tone was both a warning and an invite.

"I am well aware of the consequences. Perhaps I even welcome them." Tae had never been such a combination of lucid and senseless. His eyebrows twitched a little at her response. Of course Tae welcomed them. She knew damn well the insinuations of what she was doing right then. Her face took on a pained look as she resisted pressing herself into him, because she wanted Gintoki to welcome her as much as she welcomed him. His eyes widened and her heart wailed in agony as fear flooded his eyes, and he withdrew his face a few centimeters from hers. He knew she wasn't joking. The line of his jaw was sharper than any sword as the tendon jumped from how tight his teeth were clenching. Afraid he would leave her clueless like every other time before, she clung insistently to him, face jumping forward as she all but yelled in his face, "I want to make you happy, Gin-san! Please, _talk_ to me." Her voice cracked with impossibly high emotion. "I hate seeing such a sad look on your face; please talk to me, tell me what haunts you. It's all right. _It's all right_." She practically begged him as tears streamed down her cheeks, repeating the words he had told him so, so many times. "You don't have to love me. You don't have to love me. I just want you to be happy, Gin-san, _I want you to be happy_," she sobbed quietly as she hung her head, her forehead landing on his shoulder.

Was she being selfish right now? Her head was just such a mess of confusion and half-finished thoughts and shadows of proper etiquette. Everything she had been holding in had just come boiling over. She couldn't stand it any longer. After seeing that tender, loving, truly happy smile on Gintoki's face, she just couldn't stand the idea of him purposely refusing himself that basic human right on account of some stupid masculine preconceptions. Not even aware that words were spilling from her mouth, she kept repeating her blubbering pleas like a prayer to God. He stiffly held her as she cried out her manic emotions, until finally she felt his arm enclose around her, snugly securing itself around her waist to hug her close. The fingers of her free hand twisted into the fabric of his clothes; her other hand was still being held up to his face.

"Tae." He said her name, but she was still sobbing too hard to respond. "Tae, look at me." Somehow, she lifted her head to look tearily up at him. She couldn't read his expression; he tilted his head as he regarded her, silver eyes traveling the tear tracks on her flushed cheeks, her quivering lips, her swimming eyes. Her chest heaved in the aftershocks of her sobbing gasps. The hand that was still clutching her wrist, now in a white-knuckled grip, slowly twitched to life. His thumb slowly began stroking rhythmic arc across the skin of the top of her hand, and then Tae stopped breathing, because his face melted into the most beautiful smile yet.

"_Thank you_." She could do nothing but stare, spellbound, starstruck, utterly and completed awed by the way he was looking at her. A fresh wave of tears spilled from her eyes at the mesmerizing sight. It was so bright it could be the moon, the sun, and the stars all in one; its light cascaded over Tae to fill her to the brim with its brilliance, but her body could not hold it so it leaked out in the form of her glittering tears of amazement. Her thumb jerked before dipping down to stroke over the corner of his mouth, and she gasped as his lips curled higher into a deeper smile. The edge of his lips was such a pleasant contour that she just mindlessly caressed it, all while Gintoki gazed at her like she was the most precious thing in the universe.

"Are you happy, Gin-san?"

He grunted in agreement, his mouth closing as his eyes flickered down to look at her hand. She sucked in a breath as he finally made his decision, turning his face in her hand to press a lingering kiss right in the center of her palm. A guttural grown bubbled out of her as he began blazing a fiery trail up her arm, silver eyes burning into hers all the while as he pushed up the sleeve of her kimono to mark his path of brief, open-mouthed kisses. When he could no longer roll up the fabric, he grabbed the neckline of her kimono and pulled to loosen it, scanning her face for any kind of discomfort all the while. As the garment fell loose around her shoulders, her skin baring for him, Tae was far from discomforted. Her breath jumped into her throat with unsteady gulps as she watched him start tracking up her shoulder. Her neck craned to the side of its own volition as his burning lips approached, and she shuddered as they met her pulse-point. His hands found her hips in a bruising grip as he worked up her neck, arriving at the peak with a hot kiss to her jaw before he suddenly pulled back to stare intensely into her eyes.

"Do I look happy to you, Tae?" She swallowed at the huskiness of his voice, the way it was laced with desire. As thick and hungering as his voice was, however, his silver eyes remained impossibly soft as they bored into hers. Those deep pools didn't seem so dark and haunted anymore; they glittered like a radiant galaxy, magnificently endless and encompassing countless stars of happiness. Happiness, just for her.

"Yes, Gin-san," she answered in a feeble whisper. In the face of so much overwhelming, crushing passion, Tae felt like glass in his sturdy hands, delicate, threading with cracks as his fingers dug into her hips. It wasn't scary; it was exhilarating. The impending shatter made her nerves prickle and buzz. She felt like a star ready to collapse into itself, preparing to explode in sheer brilliance at the pin drop. He smiled again, making her lungs balloon in her chest and hold.

"Good. Remember this moment, Tae," he told her, gently. _For a lifetime, _she promised eagerly, but all thoughts ceased once his face began to drift into her orbit, on an inevitable collision course with her waiting lips. Her eyes fluttered shut.

Then the pin dropped, and Tae was a _supernova_.

His lips smoothed over hers in an intensely zealous kiss. Tae didn't think her lungs had any more room for air, but as soon as their mouths met, she inhaled sharply through her nose because it just felt so _good_. His hands pushed around to the small of her back to tug her against him. He had been kneeling on the floor the entire time, and he corralled Tae between his open legs, ensuring that every square centimeter of her body was flush against his broad chest. Tae's hand roamed the contours of his front, making a roadmap of the lines of his pectorals and abdominals, while her other hand flew to the back of his head, greedy fingers digging into those gorgeous silver threads. She moaned quietly as he kissed her with increasing fervor, his tongue soon darting over her bottom lip pleading entry. She complied and their lip-locking rose to searing levels. As his tongue dove into her mouth to tangle adamantly with hers, she collapsed into him with near-faint, like he was stealing all her vitality with the ardent kiss. Suddenly she was tipping backwards, and her back landed on the cold wooden floor with Gintoki climbing on top of her, their lips not separating for an instant.

The fire died gradually into flickering embers. Their chests heaved as they gazed into each other's eyes, the edges of their noses occasionally bumping as they eased down from their highs. Breathlessly, he gave her that smile again, that smile that made Tae's soul alight with joy and brought tears to her eyes, and he said: "I'm _very_ happy, Tae."

"Good. I'm glad, Gin-san. I'm glad."

Tae's blood ran cold when Kagura suddenly laughed triumphantly and vaulted herself over onto her other side, her legs kicking out a few times before she mumbled something like "take that, asshole" and fell silent. Shinpachi groaned loudly and sleepily muttered for her to shut up before mumbling incoherently and also falling silent. Tae and Gintoki stared in terror at the underside of the kotatsu table, realizing that they had just had a hot-and-heavy make-out session in the direct vicinity of two teenagers. After it was evident that neither of them were awake, she and Gintoki side-eyed each other before giggling under their breaths.

"I suppose I should be grateful for once that they're both such heavy sleepers."

"Yes indeed. Shinpachi wouldn't be pleased to find Gin-san making out with his sister…" He gave her a wolfish smirk, bringing his face teasingly close and nipping at her jaw, making her squeal delightedly.

"You think I'm afraid of what that little four-eyed brat is gonna say?"

"No, but you love him, don't you?" That caught Gintoki by surprise, and he gawked at her before his face ultimately softened. He sat up some to look back across the kotatsu table at their two sleeping, snoring forms. "Both of them."

"Yeah. Guess I do," he huffed slightly. After such an emotional ordeal, Tae's body was practically screaming for sleep now. Her movements were languid and unfocused as she abstractly traced patterns into his upper chest, before her strength finally failed her and her hand flopped down uselessly to her chest. Her eyelids drooped before they scrunched tight, a sudden yawn splitting her face. Her eyes fluttered open again to see Gintoki had grabbed the discarded blanket and was unfolding it to drape it over her. She wriggled around to put the rest of her body back underneath the cozy warmth of the kotatsu table.

"You won't act like this never happened, will you, Gin-san?" she asked quietly, catching the hem of his kimono as he rose. He smirked down at her, putting his hands on his hips like the answer was obvious.

"'Course not. I'll catch you for tea sometime, Tae," he said. Her face flushed red at the very unspoken insinuations behind his statement. As she stared wide-eyed up at him, she caught it, that smile that marked a Gintoki that she and she alone knew. "G'night, Tae," he said before whirling on his heel and striding off to go find his own bed. The fabric of his clothes slipped from her fingers as he retreated, the nerves of her fingertips bristling at the loss of sensation before falling quiet. She smiled widely as small tears prickled at the corners of her eyes again.

"Goodnight…"

Wishing someone true happiness _was_ the purest form of love; Tae knew this now. Because nothing could be purer than the way he gazed at her just then, or the persistent thumping of her overjoyed heart in her chest as she drifted finally into the realm of dreams, or the memory of that brilliant moonlight smile of his as he allowed himself, for once, to feel true happiness.


	10. Snowed In

Category: Romantic Fluff

Characters: Tae Shimura, Toshiro Hijikata

Requested By: 8579 (FanFiction)

"Good-bye, everyone! See you tomorrow!" Tae called cheerfully in the threshold of the door to the cabaret club while bundling her scarf about her neck. Her coworkers, and quite a few men in various degrees of inebriation, responded with resounding farewells as she finished tugging on her mittens and finally exited her workplace. As she inhaled, the cold, winter night air rushed up into her nasal passages; it tickled the sensitive membranes and caused her to sneeze. Frowning, she rubbed the underside of her nose with the edge of the mittens and shivered. "It's freezing tonight… I had better get home quick!" she muttered to herself before starting a brisk pace for home.

A thin layer of snow crusted over the dirt streets. It crunched under the soles of Tae's sandals like half-melted shaved ice as she trundled along the street. Every few seconds, a powerful breeze would howl down from the sky to blast through the Edo roads, striking Tae with enough fierceness to send her tumbling back. She hadn't even rounded the block before she had tugged her scarf up over her mouth and nose and had her hands buried under her armpits. The thin curves of her round cheeks peeking above the knitted fabric were a blistering red, burning from the relentless bits of the ice-laden wind. The breath that leaked out of the knotted fibers fogged before her before being whipped away by the gales. _Maybe I should have just waited out the storm at work. The weather forecast didn't predict a blizzard or anything! _She lamented as she continued her miserable trudge. The snow had already piled up around her ankles.

She yelped aloud as a particularly buffeting burst of wind knocked her a few paces back. The soles of her sandals slid over the slick, ice-encrusted sidewalk. She pinwheeled and cried out as she lost her balance; Tae then tipped backward with a final squeal and landed on her rump in the powdery stuff. A shiver crawled up her spine as the cold bit into her behind with thousands of pin-like teeth. The bottom half of her kimono eagerly soaked up the wetness of the snow, spreading even more of the jarring cold over her skin. She hastily- but carefully- clambered to her feet and shivered when the wind resumed its attack on her with gusto. Her normally kempt brown hair had been wrenched from her bun to flap erratically around her flushed, chapping face. The wind was shrieking with a fervor now, swirling the snow around wildly. She squinted into the maelstrom, but all she could see was white.

"Oh no," she whimpered and bundled her sodden clothes as tightly as she could around her shuddering body. Home was a long, cold walk, but the way she came was a long, cold walk too. What she wouldn't give for a deus ex machina to rescue her from this dismal situation. A gleaming knight in shining armor astride a gallant steed to spirit her away to a warm hearth and hot meal…

"You've gotten yourself into quite the mess, haven't you, cabaret girl?" Tae's expression curled into something ghastly and horrid at the sarcastic voice floating upon the wind. It was less a gentle knight, and more a scheming gremlin crawling out of a nasty sewer. She glanced over her shoulder to see a simple wooden gate, squeaking as the wind lobbed it back and forth. Beyond that was a simple stone pathway mostly buried by the piling snow leading up to the wooden porch of a spacious house. Beyond _that_ stood one Toshiro Hijikata, leaning in the threshold of his doorway, taking a drag from a cigarette and eyeing the girl with critical black eyes. "Hey, hey, hey, _hey_!" he protested angrily as she promptly began stomping down the sidewalk again.

"What?" She looked back to see that he had stumbled across his porch and had one hand wrapped around the support beam. The burning end of the bud clenched in his teeth glowed a burnt umber, casting orange light over his face. His scowl deepened when she acknowledged him. Tae's eyebrow crept up when he rubbed the back of his neck and looked away, with what she saw was the faint hint of a blush burning over his cheeks.

"… J-just get inside, dammit! There's no sense in you walking around in a damn _blizzard_!" he barked at her. His face shone a rosy pink when he glared back at her. Tae gawked at him, admittedly suspicious. It wasn't that she had anything against Toshiro, and it was much better than stumbling up to a stranger's house begging for reprieve. However, he was a leading officer in the Shinsengumi and had historically had it out for the Yorozuya, even if the world nearly ending twice had mellowed him out a bit. Unsure, she mulled about on the sidewalk, prompting a vein to bulge out on his forehead. "What's the _problem_? Don't tell me you've frozen to the street."

"Oh, hush, you!" she scolded and bundled her wet kimono about her thighs. There was nothing for it, and she knew that; this was as good as an invitation for hospitality she was going to get, and she ought to take it. _Even if it's this grumpy bastard, _she thought snootily. Still holding her dripping wet kimono, she cautiously crept her way over the frozen ground of his yard before arriving at the porch. She kept her gaze on her toes the entire time, carefully selecting her footholds; when the ice-encrusted wood of the first porch step came into view, she gasped as a hand also appeared in her field of vision. She looked up at Toshiro with pink cheeks. He was clenching the cigarette tightly in his teeth and looking at her through his peripheral vision. As she hesitated, he shook his hand insistently.

"Come on, cabaret girl; I'm freezing my ass off."

"My name is not 'cabaret girl'! It's Tae!" He winced when she grabbed his hand and squeezed it with much more force than necessary. Recognizing it as karma for his foulness, he swallowed the insult with grace and eased her up the porch. He released her hand once she was secure on the wood, but a deep part of Tae lamented the loss of his fingers enclosed around hers. She had felt them even with the woolen fabric of her mittens. His warmth still burned on her fingertips, fighting a valiant battle against the numbing cold that had invaded her nerves. Toshiro simply muttered "come on" and disappeared behind the screen of his front door. Rubbing her tingling fingertips with her opposite hand, Tae lingered a moment on the porch.

_Have I possibly gotten myself into an even bigger mess? _

The wind and snow had not an answer, only promises of more biting cold. Tae quickly bundled herself into the house.

Tae's brown eyes were wide as she stalled in the entryway. From there, she could see most of everything, and she was impressed to find it an elegant and tidy abode. It was almost so neat and tidy, actually, that it was unsettling; it looked more like a house on the market than a proper residence, as Toshiro had very few personal possessions. Only the necessities abounded, like various articles of furniture, an outfitted kitchen, and a kotatsu table in the living room. She could not see his bedroom from her vantage point, but she wouldn't be shocked to find it barren aside from a futon.

Just as Tae slipped out of her sandals, Toshiro came strolling around the corner, holding a bundle of cloth. Tae ogled at it in befuddlement, then slowly shifted her gaze up to him. He had that pink tint to his face again and was rubbing awkwardly at the base of his neck.

"You shouldn't walk around wearing those wet clothes, so… Here," he brusquely grunted and thrust the black fabric into her hands. It was then that Tae realized that he was handing her a kimono- one of _his_ kimonos, to be exact. If she was cold before, that was no longer so, for a heated flush bloomed over her body from her head to her toes. An argument simmered on the tip of her tongue, but when she glanced down to find ice-cold water puddling around her feet, she reconciled with the fact that she would have to change into Toshiro's clothes. He continued scrubbing at the base of his neck and gestured down the hall. "The uh… restroom is down that way…" he grumbled. Tae dipped her head respectfully and scurried off to get changed.

She could feel his gaze on her the entire time she shuffled down the hall, right up until the moment she flipped on the light and shut the door behind her.

She placed a hand over her heart to find its pace hammering. _Why am I getting so flustered? It's just Hijikata! _She gulped, immediately realizing the folly of that statement. Toshiro Hijikata was a regular topic of conversation at the cabaret club, even more than he was a frequent visitor with the rest of the Shinsengumi. It was little wonder, of course, because the man was undeniably attractive. Even Tae couldn't contradict it; luscious black hair, chiseled features, a high position in a steady job, and a bad-boy attitude? He was every girl's fantasy. Of course, Tae knew the man much more personally than the rest of the cabaret girls; his foul manner could be quite grating. _Still… He invited me into his home, and he loaned me his clothes, _she thought while hugging the kimono to her chest. She could not help the tiny little smile that graced her chilled lips.

She might as well make the story as riveting as she could for when she recounted it to her coworkers tomorrow morning.

She peeled her kimono from her body, and it slipped to the floor with a wet _slap! _As she drew Toshiro's black robe over her arms, she caught the faint whiff of cigarette smoke and enticing cologne. One would think the pungent aromas would make her hack and cough, but Tae found the scent oddly pleasant. She secured the sash around her middle, then frowned when she noticed how loosely the fabric hung from her small frame. She could solve the problem of the too-long sleeves just fine by rolling them up, but every few seconds, the cloth would slip from her shoulders and expose just a bit too much of the curves of her chest. _I'll have to be careful not to flash him like a common harlot, _she thought with a click of her tongue as she held the baggy cloth to her chest and bent over to pluck her soiled clothes from the wood floor. There was a small puddle of water glistening on the polished surface, though the kimono had only been sitting there amount a minute. The bunched cloth was heavy in Tae's hand. Tucking it underneath her arm, she turned and opened the sliding door-

and was greeted by a surprised Toshiro, who was holding his fist up mid-knock.

As she jumped, he flushed a pink color and stepped back from the door. "S-sorry…" An awkward silence descended between them, so she meekly held out the wet clothing.

"Is there somewhere I can hang this to dry?" He led her to his laundry room, where she laid her kimono over a drying rack. They migrated back to his living room, where they sat at opposite ends of the kotatsu table. He had prepared some hot tea while she was changing and had already poured her a cup. Tae took it with both her hands, appreciating the way the warmth blossomed across her cold palms. Toshiro lit up a cigarette and took a long drag, then exhaled the smoke between them. Tae watched disconcertedly as the thin white-gray wisps slowly rose to the ceiling before dispersing against the support beams. "… Thank you. It was very kind of you to invite me inside," she said finally with a dip of her head. Toshiro regarded her with lidded black eyes.

"What was I supposed to do? Let you freeze to death?" he grunted, his gaze falling to his own cup of tea, which he had not touched. "I'd have no reason to visit the cabaret club anymore."

They simultaneously blushed. Tae's head snapped up to stare at him disbelievingly, but he had already turned to the side, staring at the wall with an embarrassed scowl. _I thought the guys always dragged him along, but… Does he actually enjoy coming to see me? _Tae was a spitfire, to be sure. Many of the other girls were sweet and charming, but Tae's reputation was of playful feistiness. Thinking back, Tae was almost always requested to serve the Shinsengumi's party; she had reasoned that it was Isao's doing, but now that she really examined the experiences, sometimes it was just Toshiro in charge. A heat rose to her cheeks as she considered the possibility that it was the vice-captain behind her exclusive catering.

Toshiro's fingers drummed against the table's surface as the quietude descended once more. Tae glanced out the window to see the snow piling up on the sill. She rose and shuffled over to the glass pane, adjusting the kimono as it slipped from her shoulders. The whiteness blanketed everything in sight; the street was no more, just a swathe of the rolling powder, and the houses across the street were laden with heavy pillows of it. Faint sprigs of dead grass poked out of the layer in the yard, rapidly being buried by the second. The slippery pathway which Tae had traversed only minutes ago was completely submerged. _I could end up staying the night here, _she reasoned. The thought made her heart quiver, and the heat in her face increase substantially. Curiously, she peered out of her peripheral vision at Toshiro, and found his gaze fixated on her.

Tae thought that it might not be a bad thing to be snowed in with the handsome police vice-captain.

"Well," she smirked finally, making him straighten up. She held the loose fabric of the black kimono to her chest as she turned to him. "Since you like visiting the cabaret club so much, why don't we liven up the atmosphere? Surely you have some alcohol here," she chuckled as his eyebrow quirked inquisitively. "I don't know about you, but _brooding _is not exactly my idea of a night in." She strolled back to the kotatsu table, making a point for the fabric to slip in just a way to unveil her milky-white thigh. "Unless, of course, Mr. Vice-Captain isn't man enough to drink with me?"

Three shared bottles of sake later, Tae was pink-faced and snorting piggishly with laughter. Her hand repeatedly slapped the surface of the table as she giggled uncontrollably. Toshiro had just said it, but she didn't even know what was so funny. He had rounded the table to sit beside her, and she was leaning heavily into his shoulder.

"Ahahahaha!" she howled as she swiped tears from the corners of her eyes. Toshiro released a long, contented sigh and slammed the most recently emptied alcohol bottle on the table before looking down at her with flickering eyes.

"I can't believe you accused me of _brooding_."

"I'm sorry, Mr. 'Oh, look at me, I'm so grumpy and serious,'" she jibed with an unflattering mimic of his baritone voice. His eyebrows dove down over his eyes, but her coy smirk revealed his amusement. "What was I _supposed_ to think you do for fun? Certainly not drink with beautiful women such as myself," she said haughtily and flipped her hair over her shoulder. It had long since fallen from her bun and cascaded in waves around her upper arms. She had also long since given up correcting the kimono every time it slipped, so the black fabric was now loosely bunched around her biceps. With the tops of her breasts peeking above the dark cloth, she certainly did look like a prostitute. She was too inebriated, or maybe confident, to care.

Toshiro purred and brought his face dangerously close to hers. Tae could smell the sake on his breath as he toothily leered over her.

"_No_, indeed. I've never had the pleasure. Those bungling oafs of mine always ruin it." Sober Tae would blush and turn away, but drunk Tae was much less concerned with social propriety. Squealing, she clapped a hand to her blistering red cheek and shoved him in his thick shoulder.

"Oh, Toshiro! You _tease_!"

His voice rumbled in a purr with the intensity of a lion's. A pleasurable shiver traveled up her spine at the sensation of his breath puffing against the shell of her ear.

"Tease? You presume too much; I'm being honest here," he sighed in fake hurt. Tae giggled, girlishly holding her hand to her lips, her eyes rolling to peer at him through her peripheral vision. The smirk decorating his face was downright devilish. His eyes glimmered like obsidian, dark and dangerous and _captivating_. Tae was now wondering why she had possessed any inhibitions about Toshiro inviting her in. "Hey." The sudden solemnness in his tone made her frown and glance up at him. His expression was suddenly very serious. "I am being _honest_, you know."

The gravity of that utterance sobered Tae immediately. Flushing, she wrung her hands into the folds of the kimono but couldn't bring herself to tear away from those smoldering eyes of his. His hand slowly reached up to lightly grab her chin, his thumb caressing the space just below her slightly parted lips. He tilted his head to the side and just _stared_, as if he were memorizing every detail of her face. The thought made another pleasurable tingle shoot through Tae's nerves, but it was much more electrifying and exciting than the last. There was such an atmosphere of tension, of expectation, like the way the air crackles with energy before lightning strikes. She drew in a breath and held it, for she already knew what he was about to ask.

"Tae." His voice was soft and inviting. Oh, how it drew her in. It felt like she was descending into warm water, floating in the dense space. She found her eyes threatening to flutter closed already, intoxicated on the deep bass of his voice alone. "_Stay with me_."

Perhaps it was the alcohol. Perhaps it was the knowledge of the snow piling high outside, and the shrieking wind rattling the glass windowpanes, and the depressing gray clouds choking the night sky. Perhaps it was the excited gossiping of the girls at work every time Toshiro strolled through the door, accompanied by his posse of police officers. Perhaps it was all of that, but it was also most definitely the fact that her heart had been palpitating from the moment she stepped through the door.

"_Of course_."

The moment his lips met hers, it felt like the entire world fell into place. It was just so incredibly natural, almost as if it had been a moment that Tae had waited her whole life for. A soft sigh slipped out of her, and her body sagged with contentment. Toshiro's sturdy arms wound around her waist when she fell against him; so immersed in the kiss was she that it seemed too burdensome even to keep herself sitting up.

Their mouths moved together in sync, slow at first. Then the hunger and passion oozed in. Soon their lips were feverishly smashing and their teeth gnashing and their tongues dancing. Tae's hand traipsed up his back to curl firmly into the straight strands of his black hair, coiling them continuously around the slim digits. She gasped when he sealed her brunette locks between his fingers and pulled, just hard enough to coax her head back but not enough to heart. Her eyelashes fluttered lasciviously when he began raining sloppy kisses across her jawline and down the column of her neck. "_Toshiro_," she whined when he pressed a searing, enduring kiss to her collarbone. He nudged her body with his own, and she obeyed the silent command, falling back against the floor. He loomed over her, ceasing his incessant affections to stroke the soft skin that had been revealed by the loose kimono.

"I suppose it's a little late to say that you're beautiful," he smirked down at her. Tae snorted, rolled her eyes, and shifted her hands down to his biceps.

"Maybe so, _but_ a girl still likes to hear it." He plucked one of her hands up and brought it to his mouth, pressing a sweet, lingering kiss to her palm. His eyes never left hers. It was so gratifying, that cherishing gaze of his, that she found herself smiling warmly. He finally pried his lips from her skin and pressed her hand against his cheek, then shifted so that his body pressed against her. It felt like her every curve locked so perfectly into place with the rugged landscape of his form. He swept some of her hair away from her face, then traced a finger down her jawline.

"I gotta say," he smiled wryly. "I never actually thought I'd find myself in this situation."

"Hard to believe that Toshiro Hijikata, vice-captain of the Shinsengumi, has been so afraid to tell a girl he likes her," she teased, and stuck out the tip of her tongue when he scowled. She yelped when he pinched it between his fingers. "Ow! I'ne thorry!" she pleaded when she failed to tug it away from him. When he released her, she began laughing at the informality of it all.

"I gotta say," she grinned when she finished snickering. "I never thought I would find myself in this situation, either."

"You regret it?" His face had retaken on that serious note. Tae smiled wider and snuggled against him, shaking her head.

"No. Not at all. One thing, though."

"What?"

"You're taking me out for a proper date tomorrow."

Toshiro smiled in amusement and leaned down to press a little kiss to the tip of her nose.

"You're too bossy for your own good," he purred. Naturally, their lips molded back together for a passionate embrace. Outside, the snow continued to fall and blanket the world in cold, cold white; but for that night, Tae found herself the warmest she had ever been.


End file.
